US "Big 3" automakers still lead all others in sales

[Lefty48197]

There was an article in USA Today titled, "Toyota, Honda auto sales leaves domestic in dust". I thougt the headline was rather misleading, considering that their graphic showed GM leading all others with 276,777 sales in Nov. 2005. Ford was second with 200,470, followed by DaimlerChrysler 178,217, Toyota 169,665, Honda 105,860, Nissan 77,212, and Hyundai 33,282.
Not exactly my idea of leaving your "opponent" "in the dust"...

The article referred to auto sales changes from November 2004 to November 2005, which showed the US manufacturers dropping from -2.7% to -15% in sales, while the Japanese manufacturers ranged from -3.9% to +10.8% in the same time period. Yes, the Japanese companies did beat the American companies in sales percentage changes from November of last year, but there is an explaination for that, and it doesn't change the fact that the American manufacturers still sell about twice as many automobiles as the Japanes manufacturers do.
The "employee pricing" discounts offered by the American auto manufacturers last summer brought in many of their loyal buyers earlier than they would have otherwise to buy new vehicles. Those "early purchases resulted in a reduction in sales over the following couple of months. Analysts believe that the demand shift has worked it's way out of the system, and that the domestic manufacturers sales change from 2004 will level out.

Here's the link:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20051202/autosales02.art.htm

Of course they left out the graphic I wanted to show, so here it is:

[screembloodymurder]

1. Not for long.

I took a demo ride in the Ford Escape Hybrid yesterday. I liked the room, the ride, and the handling, but I just couldn't get over how cheap the interior looked. Why can't Detroit make plastic?