US consumers boost Asia's 'Little 3' car makers

(Lane V. Erickson)

While October car sales in the US were dominated, as usual, by General Motors, Toyota and Ford, consumers were also increasingly drawn to the wares of the smaller East Asian automakers of Hyundai, Kia and Subaru.

The list of top-selling brands in the US is almost bereft of European car manufacturers, with Mercedes-Benz not appearing until number 11 and auto giant Volkswagen not even cracking the top dozen for sales.

Among the largest US and Japanese manufacturers, only GM and Ford saw their overall US sales grow from last October, with Chrysler, Toyota, and Nissan all registering declines.

US Auto Sales in October 2009

Rank   Car Brand:       Oct. Sales    % Change from Oct. 2008
1.        Toyota              132,663     -2.3
2.        Chevrolet          116,436    +8.5
3.        Ford                  119,072     +3.6
4.        Honda               75,751       0.0
5.        Nissan               53,664      +7.7
6.        Hyundai             31,005      +48.9
7.        Dodge                26,265     -22.1
8.        GMC                   25,423      +20.4
9.        Kia                     22,490      +45.3
10.      Lexus                19,502       +19.8
11.      Mercedes-Benz 18,193       +21.3
12.      Subaru              18,169       +40.7