Good news from Detroit this Holiday season: December, 2009, numbers are showing the American auto industry's strongest year-over-year sales increase of what has been a rather grim year. According to industry forecaster J.D. Power and Associates, a 15 percent increase in new vehicle sales is expected once the December numbers are in, thanks to a retail sales surge.

In a statement to the press, Gary Dilts, senior vice president of global automotive operations at J.D. Power said, "The market is continuing to improve, with the relative strength of December sales supporting a year-end rally."

This year-end rally makes December, 2009 only the third month of the year to show a sales increase. The others, August and November, had only small gains, with the August advance prodded by the "cash-for-clunkers" incentive program. November and December, on the other hand, are benefiting from being compared to last year's collapsed-market conditions.

December sales are projected to total about 1.03 million vehicles, an improvement from last year's 859,152, with retail sales expected to increase by 20 percent, to 839,600, although fleet sales should show a decrease of 2.5 percent - about 5,000 vehicles, according to J.D. Power.

According to Mr. Dilts, the seasonally adjusted sales rate for December is 11.2 million vehicles, which is higher than November's 10.5 million rate, and the third highest of the year. According to the Automotive News Data Center, total light vehicle sales in November were 747,086.

During the first eleven months of the year, sales of American light vehicles dropped 24 percent to 9.4 million. Hyundai, Kia and Subaru were the only brands to advance.

J.D. Power based its December forecast on sales through the 17th of the month.