Ford capped a good year with its best December since 2006.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Detroit automakers capped a good year with strong December auto sales, putting them on course for the first year in decades that all three could gain market share.
GM (GM, Fortune 500) posted a 4.5% gain in December sales, roughly in line with forecasts, enough to give the No. 1 U.S. automaker a 13% rise in sales for the full year.
Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) reported its best December sales in five years as sales rose 10% to top forecasts for the month. For the year it posted an 11% sales gain.
Chrysler Group posted by far the biggest gain, with December sales up 37%, lifting full year sales by 26%. The December gain was roughly in line with forecasts.
Final market share information for the year won’t be available until other automakers such as Toyota Motor (TM) report December sales later Wednesday. But market share was up for all three U.S. automakers going into December, according to sales tracker Autodata. If those increases hold up, it will mark the first time since 1988 that all three posted market share gains at the same time.
GM’s market share was at 19.7% for the 11 months through November, up from 19.1% in 2010, putting it on track for its first share gain since 2002. Ford’s market share was only slightly higher, at 16.8% in November 2011 vs. 16.7% in 2010. Assuming those gains are sustained, it would mark the third straight year of increases for Ford, a feat it hasn’t achieved since 1970.
Chrysler Group was set to post the biggest increase, with 10.7% market share as of November, up from 9.4% in 2010. Those figures don’t include any market share from the Fiat brand, which was reintroduced in the U.S. in 2011. 