Most of the sales figures for September are in and it turned out to be a very good month for almost everybody, as long you weren’t a marginal Asian brand. Overall, sales of light duty vehicles rose some 29% over last year.

Chrysler led the charge among domestic companies with a 61% increase over a particularly dismal September last year, although the pride of Auburn Hills couldn’t quite break the 100,000 mark. Ford was next with a solid 46% jump and GM brought up the rear, and underperformed the market, with an 11% increase.

Asian brands fared slightly less well, though most posted increases. Toyota was up 16.8%, Honda gained 26%, Nissan rose 34%, Subaru surged 47%, Mazda increased 30% and Hyundai/Kia climbed 44%. Not so impressive were showings from Isuzu which was down 9% and Suzuki which tumbled nearly 12%. (Combined sales from these two automakers were less than Porsche.)

European marques all were up: Saab a whopping 133%, Porsche 25%, BMW 20%, Daimler 18% and VW 14%.

Sales in September of 2009 were especially weak as the market was coming off the “cash for clunkers” program which had driven up demand and depleted dealer inventories. Still, up is always better than down and it is also gratifying to see domestic companies regaining lost market share.

(source: Wards Automotive)

--M.D.