Top 10 Best -Selling Cars: October 2009

It seems all eyes are on the U.S. auto industry today as October sales figures roll in. Sales for the month were positive for many automakers, but none were more important than the 4% gain posted by General Motors. This is the company’s first positive figure in 21 months. Not only that, but they did it while carrying four essentially dead brands. Sales increased by 11.6% at GM’s four core brands — Buick, Cadillac, Chevy and GMC.

On the flip side, Chrysler can’t seem to stop the bleeding. Its sales were down 30% from October 2008.

Does the change of fortunes for the brands alter the top 10 list? Not by much. There is some reshuffling, though, with the Chevy Silverado getting a good boost. However, seven of the top 10 are either a Honda or Toyota.

Comments

Hmmm...May the Best Car Win...
Corolla 25K, Civic 16K, Cobalt 5K
Camry 30K, Accord 23K, Malibu 12K
CRV 15K, Rav4 14K, Equinox/Terrain combined 11K

May the best car win!

OS is gone dude. There's no need to start this BS.

Thanks H,
Also Chevy Traverse did better than Pilot or Highlander by far. There's really a lot to be said for GM's performance. Remember GM's sales up overall, Toyota, Honda down overall. Even if marginally. So "cars" plural went to GM you could say.

Does it bother anybody else that the 1-2 selling units are full size American trucks???

Total sales is pointless argument (in terms of the ad) when one manufacturer sells 50 makes and models and another sells 15. It's like comparing Walmart to Sears. The point is they advertise 4 vehicles in head to head comarison and say "may the best car win". Hitting on one out of 4 isn't winning. BTW - you may think OS isn't around...somehow I think he is but just under a different name.

I was surprised at how Corolla was so far ahead of Civic - almost 10K more for the month.

By the sound of it he is using the name "Ziggy"...arguing about pointless arguments is what he did and now you are doing the same thing whether you realize it or not.

Is Toyota really moving forward, is Nissan shifting, did you drive one, is Lexus pursuing perfection, is das auto really the car.

I swear I don't know why some people act like car companies are sports teams and feel compelled to trash talk.

Damn that X grocery store has some fine meats and produce. You must be really stupid to go to Y grocery store.

tscurt - Why does it bother you? I believe people should be able to purchase whatever fills their needs. Maybe, just maybe contractors, farmers, etc are replacing their older trucks with new ones. Besides, not everyone can fill their needs with econo-box cars, if indeed that is where you were leaning. If not I apologize.

it was a huge huge month for truck incentives in October as well.

I don't defend GM but they clearly are rebounding, quickly, because of new product.

Same with Ford and the Taurus and Mercedes with the E Class.

I was gonna say what Scott was. Contractors, entire construction industry and any other business group that needs towing or hauling needs a pickup, that accounts for the large majority of those sales.

H
I don't see other companies (automotive or otherwise) that compare themselves to their competition as much as GM does. Honda doesn't mention GM in ads. Toyota doesn't mention GM in ads. "They" put the "challenge" up there of "may the best car win". Nissan's "Shift" ad and Mazdas "Zoom Zoom" are not comaparisons to other vehicles and they're not a "challange'.

Hands down the 2010 Maxima is the best unmentioned.

Gotta agree that GM's advertising doesn't seem to be working. Heck this list is pretty much the same as every other month. I don't think a few mpgs more really matters to folks if there isn't a history of reliability.

dave t.,

where do you get these numbers from? i've always been curious to find out whether the combined silverado/sierra numbers come close to outselling the f150. sad to not see the ram up there on the list. i was given one as a loaner from the dealership while my car was being serviced and was really impressed.

Looks like the buyers are continuing to vote with their wallet! Pickup trucks continue to sell like they always have. But cars.... Looks like the buyers know where they get the most value and content for their money. Same as before.

It's not just the big pickups that did well. GM's big SUVs also all saw large sales jumps.

There are more details here, along with the listing of the top-20 best-sellers:
http://www.examiner.com/x-1017-DC-Car-Examiner~y2009m11d4-Trucks-are-big-again-and-other-October-2009-new-car-sales-results

Wow not one single Detroit car in the whole mix. That's more telling than anything.

I find it disconcerting that domestically trucks seem to be the only ones that can compete. Hmm farmers? When gas was $4 a gallon everyone who had a fullsized truck was bitching and attempting to sell their trucks off.. and here we are a year later.. lets see where those people are when gas is $4 a gallon again. Oh and I don't know too many farmers in seattle, but I know alot of people who like to drive themselves around in their oversized trucks and SUVs to work everyday.

It would be more interesting to see these numbers if they did not include fleet sales (I don't know if they do). Police departments, government motor pools, rental car agencies have buying policies that tend to skew the consumer choice aspect.

Wow GM offers trucks and its oct when truck sales go up, so with this, all the vehicles that get fleeted out by gm (like every time you rent a car its a POS gm) and there 13 different brands shouldnt they sell more cars? Also after having 21 months of sales going down do you maybe think they kind reached the bottom and there wasnt much more room to go down. So great job GM you hit record sales lows then go up 4% wow great job I think im going to buy one today!
Im sure most of the new Impala's and Malibu's sold are fleet vehilce because no one with a brain would buy a new gm when they can by a 1 year old one for half the price because they flood the market with the used rental cars. (also the quality is poor!)