Sales of light vehicles in the United States in December chalked up a 15 percent gain over 2008 with 1,030,096 units moved, bringing some relief to an otherwise painful year for the industry that witnessed the bankruptcies of both General Motors and Chrysler.

Sales for Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Sales, and Subaru each came up by a third during the month with Hyundai-Kia seeing an advance of 42 percent. The December numbers were sufficient to bring the volume for the year up to 10.43 million, which is still 21 percent lower than the figures for 2008.

Industry sales for the decade averaged 16.4 million and the 2009 number is the lowest since 1982 when just 10.35 million sales were made. However, during the first half of the year pundits were suggesting 2009 might see as few as 9.5 million cars sold. December was the third month when year-over-year sales figured increased, leading to cautious optimism that the automotive industry is experiencing a recovery.

Going into 2010, Ford expects its sales to hover between 11.5 million and 12 million units. Ken Czubay, head of sales for the company, quoted in an article for Automotive News by Jesse Snyder said painful lessons had been learned. "2009 may be the most historic year in the automobile business. There were bankruptcies, bailouts, government stimulus. I'm leaving my seat belt on because I think that volatility is still the new norm."

Not all auto makers had a successful December season. General Motors, Chrysler Group, Porsche, and Mitsubishi all lost ground with GM's six percent decline the largest among the group. The real losers were Suzuki with a 48 percent drop in sales and Maserati down 57 percent for only 115 units moved.