• by Karl Greenberg , February 4, 2008

January was a generally dour month for the auto business, but it wasn't without some big surprises.

Predictably, most automakers commiserate about the sluggish economy, and stock market jitters with a group hug. Unforeseen, General Motors saw sales rise last month, and perennial golden child Lexus saw sales drop, as did Honda and Nissan. Meanwhile, luxury brands like Mercedes and Audi hit the sweet spot, and vehicles that save a ton of gas eked silver linings out of a cloudy month for most automakers.

Analysts had predicted that GM would lose a chunk of sales last month. Instead, GM sales were up 2.1%, with retail sales up 11% because of demand for new cars. GM's retail car sales were up 31%, and truck sales were up 3%. New products like Malibu (up 58%) and the new Caddie CTS (up 95%) drove car sales. Vehicles like the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook drove GM's crossover sales up 134% to 12,200 vehicles delivered.

GM's U.S. sales chief, Mark LaNeve, says the company's retail sales, as a portion of total sales (including rental fleets) were up 6%. "January's performance strongly indicates that along with our great market position in trucks and crossovers, GM is back in the car business. Overall, we've had year-over-year retail sales increases in four of the past five months."

Ford sales slipped 4% last month between its domestic Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands and Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. Total Ford company sales last month were 159,914. Still, Ford posted strong sales for its Edge crossover, for which sales were up 95%; sales of sibling Lincoln MKX rose 78%, and Ford saw a 44% increase in sales of the Focus compact.

Said Jim Farley--late of Toyota, now Ford's group vice president, marketing and communications--in a release, "It's not going to get any easier--at least for awhile. Recent monetary actions and the proposed stimulus package may help the economy later this year, but we're not pinning our hopes on that." The company will launch the Ford Flex crossover and Lincoln MKS sedan this summer, and this fall, the new Ford F-150 pickup.

Toyota sales slipped 2.3% to 171,849 vehicles, including its Lexus and Scion. Toyota sales were off 1.4%, Lexus' were off 8.2%. Toyota's Scion division posted sales of 7,872. Says Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales, the company's U.S. sales arm: "Consumers are sitting in the catbird's seat, with falling interest rates and a competitive market giving rise to showroom values." He said Toyota's launch this month of the redesigned Corolla and Matrix siblings will catch the wave of consumer migration to smaller cars and crossovers.

Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis at the auto research and online auto shopping channel, says consumers are generally more wary. "It's the general macroeconomic environment--the uncertainty around housing markets, the stock market, and the credit crunch associated with those issues are pushing consumers to postpone car purchases. People are still buying cars, but consumers are more suspicious of the economy, so they are postponing big-ticket purchases."

American Honda saw a 2.3% decline in overall sales--including Acura brand--to 98,511 vehicles. Honda's car sales, however, were up 7.1% for the month, driven by Accord, Civic, CR-V, Odyssey minivan, and Pilot SUV. Sales of the CR-V were up 11.3%; its subcompact Fit car was up 120%, and sales of the Civic were up 14.2%. Honda's luxury unit Acura saw a 14.2% sales decline versus last year.

Nissan saw a 7.8% decrease in sales last month, with Infiniti also down 3.6%.

Among luxury marquees, Audi of America and Mercedes-Benz both broke sales records for the month. Audi, just barely bested last January with sales in January of 6,418 vehicles, had an increase of 0.3%. Mercedes saw a 7.1% improvement to 18,275 last month.