US vehicle sales for 2011 best since 2008 near 13m runits

San Jose Mercury News - U.S. automobile sales are expected to total nearly 12.8 million units for 2011, making this the best year the industry has seen since 2008. 

And 2012 is looking even better.

"This year, new car sales are up year over year for every major automaker except Honda and Toyota," analyst Kristen Andersson of automotive research site TrueCar.com said in a report this week. The report put the December sales tally at just over 1.2 million cars and trucks -- an 8.1 percent gain over the same period last year and 24.4 percent higher than November's total.

The actual results will be released Wednesday.

It's already clear that all three Detroit automakers made big gains in 2011. That was partly a testament to the improving quality of their vehicles, and partly the result of the March earthquake and tsunami that disrupted production in Japan and left many Japanese manufacturers without sufficient inventories to meet consumer demand.

On Friday, Ford Motor announced that sales of its Ford brand topped 2 million for the first time since 2007, making it the winner in the perennial contest with General Motors' Chevrolet brand.

"Ford's lineup of high-quality, fuel-efficient cars, utilities and trucks continues to attract more and more new customers," Erich Merkle, Ford's sales analysis manager, said in a statement.

"With gasoline prices tracking higher than last year, customers continue to move toward smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, whether they are passenger cars or utilities." 

Chrysler Group was the biggest gainer among Detroit's Big Three, boosting its 2011 market share 1.3 points, according to a report released Friday by JPMorgan.