• by Karl Greenberg , November 2, 2011

October was a big month for auto sales, especially for Hyundai and its Kia sibling, Volkswagen, Ford, Nissan, and Chrysler. Even Honda, in spite of some serious production bottlenecks due to the Thailand floods -- where it has manufacturing capacity -- and ongoing shakedowns from the disaster in Japan earlier this year, had a decent month as well.

But given that only Toyota saw a big sales drop among top-tier automakers selling in the U.S., it's not beyond the realm of possibility that other automakers are conquesting the Torrance, Calif., perennial car-category volume leader, especially if those other automakers are from Seoul. Both Hyundai and Kia posted record sales for October.

As did Volkswagen, whose October sales were up nearly 40% last month. It has already about surpassed its entire sales volume for 2010 this year in part because of its best October since 2001. The company sold 5,040 Passats last month, the best month for that model since 2005. Sales of the Jetta increased over 51% last month.

Chrysler saw a 27% lift last month, the best October since 2007 and the 19th consecutive month of year-over-year sales increases for the company, now part of Fiat, SpA. Retail sales for the month were up 40%, per the company.

Jeep posted its 18th straight month of sales gains driven by a 566% spike in Compass sales -- the company sold 5,179 units last month. The division sold 9,892 Wranglers. The Chrysler brand saw a 28% jump -- thanks to Eminem, I mean, sales of the Chrysler 200 -- which increased 405% versus the vehicle it replaced. The Ram Truck brand posted a 21% increase, and the Avenger and Journey crossover drove Dodge sales. Chrysler says year-to-date sales are up 23%.

Jesse Toprak, who heads up industry analysis at TrueCar.com, says that while some of Chrysler's success is in the math -- its year-over-year improvements look good because it had such a miserable 2010 -- "but you have to give them credit for vehicles like the 200, and the entire Jeep line, which is helping to carry retail," he says.

Ford posted a 6% increase in total sales in October, with the 167,803 vehicles delivered mostly comprising trucks and crossovers. The company said crossovers and SUVs are up 38%, and trucks are up 8%.

The company says its year-to-date sales are up 17% and that if the trend keeps up for the next two months the Dearborn, Mich., automaker will have a 1 percentage point increase in market share, the third yearly gain.

On the car side of the business, Ford reported an 18% improvement versus October last year. Sales of Fiesta increased 7%; Fusion sales were up 4%, and 15% year-to-date through October.

General Motors saw a 2% lift in retail deliveries versus October last year, with Chevrolet's Cruze driving sales. Don Johnson, VP of U.S. sales said relatively strong sales across all four GM brands mean the company is positioned to load up with 2012 model-year vehicles. "Combined with the launches of several new fuel-efficient cars, including the Chevrolet Sonic and Buick LaCrosse eAssist, we are very well positioned going forward,” he said, in a statement. The company reported that all four brands increased volume versus the month last year, and that 2012 models were 80% of passenger car sales and about half of truck and crossover sales last month.

Toyota, meanwhile, sales dropped 4.3% with Toyota's eponymous division selling 115,954 vehicles last month, a 3.2% drop, though up 4.7% from September. Lexus sales volume dropped 14.2%, though it, too saw a 16% increase versus September.

Toyota's light trucks saw 6.7% less volume versus October last year. Toyota's keystone vehicle, The new 2012 Camry contributed 22,000 units to October sales and Toyota says it is delivering another 35,000 to dealers for November as it preps the rollout of the 2012 Yaris subcompact.

American Honda, which has been embattled by delivery problems, posted October sales of 98,333 vehicles, an increase of 3.3%, though year-to-date sales of 958,130 are still down 5.3% versus last year.

"As dealer inventories continued to replenish in October, we saw increased momentum over last month’s sales," said John Mendel, American Honda executive vice president of sales.

Toprak says Toyota has had timing against it, as it had just recovered from the whole recall issue when the earthquake/tsunami disaster hobbled recovery. Now the flooding in Thailand is further putting shackles on Toyota's momentum. "They keep getting hit by natural disasters or their own problems," he notes. "Like Honda they have computer chips from [Thailand] bound for their cars. But the problem with Toyota is that if these problems happened five years ago loyalists would have waited it out. Unfortunately, the competition is so much better now."