Strong sales in December capped off a great year for U.S. carmakers — especially Chrysler — and 2012 should be even better.
For their biggest Japanese rivals, a year of natural disasters and other struggles ended on a sour note, with U.S. sales falling and the outlook for next year just as challenging.
Chrysler Group, in the midst of a comeback after its 2009 trip through bankruptcy court, said Wednesday that sales surged 37 percent in December and 26 percent for all of 2011. Demand was particularly strong for the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Chrysler 200. Chrysler catapulted itself ahead of Honda Motor Co. as the fourth-largest automaker by sales in the U.S.
General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. ended the year with more modest double-digit percentage gains. Analysts say U.S. car sales rose for the second year in a row. U.S. auto sales rose 10 percent to 12.8 million in 2011. That’s up 22 percent from 2009.
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