January 2011 Sales At a Glance

January was another good month for the auto industry as a whole with all but four brands turning in increased sales. The month also brought a few pleasant surprises with Mitsubishi, Smart, and Suzuki all improving on last year's sales. Cadillac led all brands with a 49.1% improvement over last January with Jaguar right behind at 48%. The Jeep brand (up 47%) is doing exceptionally well with its new Grand Cherokee and is quickly catching up to Dodge in overall sales. Also doing well for the month was the previously mentioned Mitsubishi that posted its best monthly sales since 2009. Not to be outdone Subaru and Audi posted record January sales. On the flip side the biggest surprise of the month was the large drop suffered by Lexus (17.1%) which forced Lexus to give up its luxury crown to Mercedes. Of note was the continued slow rollout of the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Volt selling 321 and 87 units respectively. While Obama is promising a million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015, at this point in time you are more likely to see an Italian exotic on the road. Expect the sales of the Volt and Leaf to increase as they go on sale nationwide later in the year.