Finally, Some Good News for the U.S. Auto Industry?

Ford's 2010 Fusion: hybrid version is a big hit. (Ford photo)

Is the American auto industry recovering? You could get that impression from the sales results for December and the year issued today and yesterday.

• Ford had its best month since May of 2008 -- with sales zooming 33% from a year ago. The company, the only one of the Big Three not to go through bankruptcy, gained a full percentage point in U.S. market share, to 15%. Ford hasn't seen an annual share increase in 15 years. The company's stock is now worth almost 10 times what it was at the beginning of 2009. Of course, for the year Ford was down 15%, but that's still much better than the dramatic slide of 2007-2008. By the way, Ford's hybrid sales were up 147% for the year, so green cars have been a big plus for the automaker. The Ford Fusion Hybrid is a hit.


• General Motors was very happy about its results today, which give it an approximately 20% market share. GM sold 160,996 cars in December, up seven percent from the same month last year and a 50%increase from November. For the year, GM sold 2,084,492, which is down 30% from 2008. But again, there was reason for optimism, since the sales totals reflected far fewer fleet sales. "Our goal is to build market share with great products and marketing, rather than with inflated fleet sales," said Susan Docherty, GM's sales chief, in a conference call. In the year that the company wound up Pontiac (796 left on dealer lots) and Saturn (916 left), it did well concentrating on the core brands of Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC.  

But Detroit is hardly out of the woods. Overall, 2009 represented the worst auto sales environment in the U.S. in more than 25 years. And Chrysler is still a basket case. "Its performance was the worst among major automakers," the New York Times opined. Its sales for the year went below a million, which hadn't happened since 1962. Sales were down four percent in December (still falling) and 36% for the year. It will be a miracle if Fiat, which plans to bring in some slick new cars, including the popular-in-Europe 500, can put Walter Chrysler's venerable institution back on its feet. Or its wheels.

But there is talk of recovery in the air. According to AutoTrader.com President Chip Perry, "December 2009 may be remembered as the month where interest in new cars returned, if activity on our site is any indication. Many consumers are feeling more confident about their jobs and the economy going into the New Year, and those factors, coupled with lots of exciting new models in showrooms, should drive an increasing amount of foot traffic to new car dealers throughout 2010."

That's a bit smiley-faced for me. Ford has strong products, but GM and Chrysler are still struggling uphill to get great vehicles in the showrooms. Even with a financial recovery, the automakers have a lot of work to do to even approach their former glory. A good year was 16 million cars, and 2009 will be lucky if it squeaks out 11 million.