Nobody can claim that 2009 was an easy year for America’s car industry. In fact it was the worst in thirty years and nearly everyone involved will be glad to see the back of it. However for some manufacturers the December sales figures may just show a glimmer of hope. Ford Motor Co said that although sales for the year were down fifteen percent in 2009 it saw a jump in sales of thirty-three percent in December. General Motors have not fared quite so well and are battling against the worst sales figures in nearly thirty years. They have just released results which show an overall drop in sales of thirty-three percent for 2009 and a ten percent drop for December. Chrysler claims that even though sales for December were down four percent and even though for the first time since 1962 the company failed to sell more that one million vehicles it claims to have some momentum going into 2010 because the last month of the year sales figures had climbed by thirty-six percent on November’s figures.

Nissan has said that although sales in December were up by eighteen percent on the same month a year earlier sales for the whole year were down by nineteen percent. On a higher note Subaru of America Inc said that it had increased sales of its vehicles in 2009 by fifteen percent and that December’s year-on-year sales figures were up by thirty-three percent.