Ford Motor Company’s sales reporting staff is exuberant, again, as the Blue Oval leads major, full-line automakers with U.S. sales up 24 percent in November. Chrysler, getting back up on its feet, was up 17 percent, while General Motors posted a more modest 11 percent gain.

GM and Ford sales and marketing both pointed to still-nascent positive economic indicators, including an 8.7-percent gain in retail sales over the critical Thanksgiving day weekend, according to the National Retail Federation. Like auto sales November ’10 versus November ’09 sales, the holiday weekend numbers compare with last year’s Thanksgiving weekend.

Both Ford and GM said there are signs of loosening credit for customers not at the top of the prime market.

Ford also pointed to an expected drop in unemployment insurance claims when the numbers are released Friday, and both Ford and GM noted that third quarter Gross Domestic Product was revised upward, to +2.5 percent from an earlier estimate of +2.0-percent. Ford’s chief economist, Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, said the housing sector is still the biggest worry for a full recovery.

Ford’s George Pipas said the entire industry sold about 880,000 cars and trucks in November, for a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of 12.5 million including medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

"It’s the second month in a row with a SAAR of more than 12 million,” Pipas noted.

Ford will end 2010 as the second consecutive year with market share growth, last seen in the ‘00s, when Toyota had three years of market share growth. Toyota won’t make such claims this year.

Toyota’s November decline is just a bit misleading, because of the six top automakers, only Toyota and Nissan posted increases in November ’09, compared with November ’08. November ‘09’s sales results showed smaller changes in both directions, however, with GM -1.8 percent, Toyota +2.6 percent and Ford, which sold fewer cars and trucks than Toyota that month, -0.2 percent.

Enough of last year’s numbers.

The upshot is that Toyota is suffering from this year’s quality and safety issues. And Ford has been in the best position to take advantage of Toyota’s fall, which the Japanese company is mitigating with incentive programs. Let’s take a closer look …

GM: 168,739, up 11.4 percent.

• The new Chevy Equinox is GM’s hottest model, with 15,387 sold last month, up 60.5 percent. The percentage increase isn’t important though, as Chevy was just ramping up the new model’s production last year. Compare it, instead, with Ford Escape, 14,937, off 1.4 percent and Toyota RAV4 at 12,306, up 2.4 percent. Honda’s CR-V remains the segment leader, at 18,263, up 25.4 percent.
• It’s a race! In October, the Ford Mustang edged out Chevrolet Camaro by a few hundred units. Last month, Camaro took the lead again, at 4,164, off 39.4 percent, but ahead of Mustang, at 4,093, up 12.8 percent. Camaro leads Mustang for the first 11 months of ’10, at 75,685 to 68,264.
• Buick outsold Chrysler brand by a couple-thousand units, at 11,725, up 35.9 percent. It sold 4,070 LaCrosses, up 19.7 percent, 3,810 Enclaves, up 24.7 percent and 1,979 German-built Regals. Lucerne was off 14 percent, to 1,866.
• Impala outsold Malibu, though, showing a confused family sedan strategy at Chevrolet. Some of this has to do with Impala’s popularity among fleet and rental customers. Impala was up 18.7 percent, to 14,693 and Malibu was up 4.8 percent, to 11,651, making the Malibu no threat last month to midsize sales leaders from Ford Fusion on up to Toyota Camry.
• Chevy Cruze continues to be a bright spot, though, with 8,066 sold. GM says it had about 9,000 available, and expects to catch up with demand by February.
• Cadillac outsold Buick slightly, at 11,801, up 21.4 percent. CTS was up 37.8 percent to 3,727, and GM says the CTS coupe (which it doesn’t break out by numbers) is second-bestseller in its segment.
• Chevy Silverado was up 15.9 percent to 25,619 and GMC Sierra was up 16.8 percent, to 9,781. Combined, they fall short of Ford F-Series sales.

Ford-Lincoln-Mercury: 147,338, up 24.3 percent.

• See GM entry for Mustang sales.
• F-Series is the industry’s bestseller, again, at 38,541, up 26.4 percent.
• Fusion had another strong month, up 28.1 percent, to sales of 17,647.
• Taurus was off 10.6 percent, to 4,172.
• Edge was up 55.2 percent, to 10,025.
• Flex still struggles, up 23 percent, to 2,490, but far short of Chevy Traverse’s 9,954 (+41.1 percent).
• Ford sold 3,473 Fiestas, and says 10 of its top 25 Fiesta dealers are in domestic-averse California.
• Lincoln MKZ rose 48.1 percent, to 2,567, though MKS was off 22.2 percent, to 1,110.
• MKX was up 38.6 percent, to 1,891, while MKT was off 9 percent, to 590.
• Mercury sold 6,146, off 12.1 percent, all of them ’10 models. Ford says the wind down is on-schedule. It has about 3,700 Mercurys left.

Toyota-Scion-Lexus: 129,317 off 7.3 percent.

• Camry sales fell 27.4 percent, to 20,737, just 3k more than Fusion.
• Corolla was off 29.1 percent, to 16,202.
• The new Avalon was up 7.8 percent, to 2,186.
• Lexus ES was off 5.1 percent, to 4,070.
• Prius posted a slight increase, up 1.9 percent, to 10,224.
• Lexus’ dedicated hybrid, the HS, lingers on dealer lots, with 788 sold, off 46.3 percent.
• The new tC was the only Scion gainer, up 79.2 percent, to 1,619.
• Lexus RX sales were off 12.5 percent, to 7,235.
• The new Sienna minivan was up 4 percent, to 8,125.
• Tundra posted a 12.1-percent gain, to 7,464 sold.

American Honda (with Acura): 89,617 up 16.1 percent.

• Accord was up 5.8 percent, but still came in second to Camry, with 19,025 sold.
• Civic was up 16.3 percent, to 16,562.
• Insight was up 4.9 percent, to 1,536.
• CR-Z, in its first year, sold 1,024.
• The new Odyssey was up 31.7 percent, to 8,805, to outsell the new Sienna.
• Acura was up 17.1 percent, to 10,718, led by MDX, up 15.9 percent, to 4,191.
• TSX was up 16.7 percent, to 2,589.

Chrysler LLC: 74,152, up 17 percent.

• Jeep sold 10,984 Grand Cherokees, up 256 percent.
• Dodge sold 2,497 Challengers, up 22 percent. Its 11-month total was 33,461.
• Caravan was the best-selling Dodge, at 5,899, off 28 percent.
• Chrysler Town & Country was off 9 percent, to 6,543.
• Jeep Patriot was up 43 percent, to 2,754.
• Ram sold 18,206 big pickups, up 86 percent.

Nissan North America (with Infiniti): 71,366, up 26.8 percent.

• Altima sales were wedged between Ford Fusion and Honda Accord, at 18,372, up 18.6 percent.
• Versa was up 21.1 percent, to 6,724.
• Rogue was up 67.1 percent, to 8,525.
• Nissan sold 3,373 Jukes.
• Infiniti was up 45 percent, to 8,182, led by the G sedan, up 35.9 percent, to 2,856.

Hyundai: 40,723, up 45 percent.

• Combined, Hyundai and Kia totaled 67,324.
• Sonata sales totaled 14,031, behind Fusion and ahead of Malibu.

Kia: 26,601, up 48.2 percent.

• Sold 1,289 old Optimas and 135 new ones.

BMW Group: 22,883, up 27.1 percent.

• Sold 8,928 3 Series, up 36.6 percent.
• 5 Series was up 58 percent, to 5,042.
• Mini was up 8.7 percent, to 2,786.

Subaru: 20,792, up 22 percent.

• Continues to edge out Volkswagen.
• Outback is its bestseller, at 7,814, up 20 percent.

Volkswagen of America: 20,189, up 24.2 percent.

• Jetta sedan was up 49 percent, to 8,955.

Daimler AG: 19,248, up 10.3 percent.

• E-Class posted 4,986 sales, up 3.4 percent.
• 829 Sprinters sold, and 211 smart fortwos (-67.5 percent).

Mazda: 15,034, up 7.4 percent.

• Month 3 for the 2, with 462 sold.
• Bestseller Mazda3 was up 9.3 percent, to 6,474.

Audi: 9,365, up 37.5 percent.

• A3 was up 107 percent, to 788 units. The TDI accounts for 70 percent of its sales.

Mitsubishi: 4,306, up 47 percent.

• Outlander was up 64 percent.

Jaguar/Land Rover: 4,039, up 22 percent.

• Land Rover was up 35 percent, to 2,922.
• Jaguar fell 3 percent, to 1,117.

American Suzuki: 2,332, up 113 percent.

• Bestseller SX4 was up 5 percent, to 1,140 and second-best Kizashi moved 729 units.

Midsize recap, a close one:

1. Toyota Camry – 20,737.
2. Honda Accord – 19,025
3. Nissan Altima – 18,372
4. Ford Fusion – 17,647
5. Hyundai Sonata – 14.031
6. Chevy Malibu – 11,651