Toyota and Honda lead US vehicle sales posting their best performance in five years. Evidently the recovery from the devastation of the 2011 tsunami is now complete. Notably, Toyota's sales jumped 27% to 2,08 million units last year. The increase of Honda is instead of 24% to 1,42 million. While Japanese automakers led the growth, sales were also buoyant for other market players, with figures that surprised analysts. Total U.S. auto shipments were 14,5 million, up 13 percent. This is the best result since 2007. Analysts now expect sales of more than 15 million vehicles for 2013.
“If you want to bet on what's really improved in our industry, it's definitely the auto business” George Magliano, senior principal economist at IHS Automotive. “It is the flagship of US manufacturing”. GM, Ford and Chrysler topped December Bloomberg estimates among 11 analysts. December sales rose 10% for Chrysler, 4,9% for GM and 1,6% for Ford.
