Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America led a gain in sales for automakers with operations here in October.
Hyundai, part of South Korea’s Hyundai Kia Automotive Group., saw a 38% gain from a year earlier to 42,656 vehicles sold in October.
For the 12 months through October, Hyundai, the largest automaker with operations here, sold 452,703 vehicles, up 21%.
The automaker’s new Sonata sedan led sales of 17,505 last month, up 125% from a year before.
“The game-changing Sonata is red hot, once again outselling Altima, Fusion and Malibu at retail,” said Dave Zuchowski, executive vice president of sales at Hyundai.
Sister company Kia Motors America Inc. of Irvine saw an sales up with 31,199 vehicles sold last month, up 38% from a year earlier.
For the 12 months through October, Kia sold 299,223 vehicles, up 14.6%.
Hyundai and Kia have seen sales and market share gains in the past year as their affordable vehicles proved a good fit with the downturn.
Automakers appear to be experiencing a gain in sales last month leading many to believe the industry’s recovery is well under way.
With October’s sales, many market watchers are expecting full-year forecasts of 11.5 million to 12 million vehicles sold through the end of the year, up from last year’s sales of 10.4 million vehicles.
“We were very encouraged by what appears to be a general strengthening of the overall sales environment in October,” Hyundai’s Zuchowski said.
Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motors North America, part of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp., was up 32% to 5,111 autos sold in October.
Brea-based American Suzuki Motor Corp. ended its 27-month slump with a 17% increase to October sales of 2,043 vehicles.
The automaker, part of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp., has been one of the hardest hit in the industry with sales through October down 46% to 19,015 autos.
