2004, By The Numbers

Auto sales rose for the first time in four years in 2004 -- though not
by much.

The Ford brand outsold Chevrolet once again, although by a very narrow
margin. Ford's full-size pickups were the best-selling trucks, and the
Toyota Camry the best-selling car. But Chevrolet, loaded with new
models, passed Toyota to sell the most cars.

Americans bought 16.9 million cars and light trucks -- vans, pickups
and SUVs -- last year, up from 16.7 million in 2003. They bought
111,000 more vehicles last month than in December 2003, providing about
half of the year's gain.

Such modest growth -- after three years of declining industry sales --
might not be much to crow about. But Jim Press, the No. 2 executive in
Toyota's U.S. sales operations, said the industry still has reason to
be proud.

"When you think about the disasters, the war, the distraction of the
election and all these things that went on, that's positive for the
total industry" to meet expectations, he said.

Here are the highlights of the year's final auto sales numbers released
Tuesday:

Ford vs. Chevy: In Michigan, Ford Motor Co.'s mainstay Ford division
held its place as the nation's top-selling brand, edging out Chevrolet
by less than 19,000 cars and trucks.

Chevrolet outsold Ford in December by 16,000 vehicles, but Ford held on
with 2.77 million sales, against 2.75 million Chevrolets.

"It was a very close race down to the end," said Ford Division
President Steve Lyons. He credits the result to 16 straight months of
increasing F-Series sales, a new Mustang that started strong out of the
gate and growing availability of its Chicago-made Five Hundred sedan.
But he said Ford sales were hurt because it sold fewer cars and trucks
to rental car companies -- cut-rate deals that generate little profit.

Car sales: Chevrolet car sales rose 15 percent for the year, posting
its best year since 1997, with 917,887 cars sold.

The newly introduced Cobalt, along with the Korean-made Aveo, a full
year of the new Malibu and an all-new Corvette combined to make Chevy
the top-selling car brand.

Toyota reported 965,091 cars sold by its Toyota Division, but that
includes sales of nearly 100,000 cars with the Scion badge -- Toyota's
youth-oriented brand. In these instances, Toyota executives tend to
refer to Scion as a marque, rather than a true brand, because Scions
are sold from selected Toyota dealerships. But most people see it as a
separate brand.

Take away the 99,259 Scions and Toyota finishes with 865,832.

New car models, such as the redesigned Mustang and new Five Hundred,
even helped Ford sell more cars than it did a year earlier for the
first time since January 2003.

Best-selling truck: Ford's F-Series pickups claimed a 23rd straight
year as the nation's top-selling vehicle, with a record 939,511. The
previous record was 911,597 in 2001.

Ford combines the sales of its F-150 light-duty pickup with the F-250
SuperDuty and other larger models all under the F-Series name.

General Motors Corp. makes full-size pickups under multiple brands and
models. All told, GM sold more full-size pickups than Ford or anyone
else, said Paul Ballew, GM's executive director of industry and market
analysis.

"We won the truck race," he said. "We won the full-size pickup truck
race by a wide margin."

He acknowledged that race will be a tough one for GM to continue to win
in 2005 because its most popular pickups, like the Chevy Silverado and
GMC Sierra, are getting old, having been introduced in 1998 and 1999.

"We are in the back end of the life cycle of our full-size pickups and
sport utilities, so we are getting off from our peak years with them in
2002 and 2003, but still much better than in 1999 when we introduced
these," Ballew said.

Best-selling car: The Camry came in as the top-selling car for the
seventh time in the last eight years. Toyota dealers sold 426,990, up 3
percent, for the year. Honda's Accord midsize car finished second with
386,770, down 2.8 percent from 2003.

Top luxury brand: Lexus was the top-selling luxury brand for the fifth
straight year, with a 10.5-percent increase to 287,927.

BMW finished second among luxury brands with 260,079, followed by
Cadillac (234,217) and Mercedes-Benz (221,366).

But there was some good news for DaimlerChrysler AG's luxury division.
Americans bought 26,607 cars and SUVs in December, more than any month
in the 40 years Mercedes has operated in the United States. As a
result, it topped 2003 sales by less than 3,000 vehicles.

Big growth: Nissan put up the biggest percentage sales gain of any
major automaker, topping 2003 sales by 24 percent.

Americans bought just shy of 1 million Nissans and Infinitis last year,
up from almost 800,000 in 2003.

Jed Connelly, senior vice president of Nissan's U.S. sales operations,
said he is most proud that the sales of the redesigned Altima jumped 17
percent and that the Titan full-size pickup is now selling at the
8,000-per-month pace the company had expected.

"When your bread-and-butter car is doing very well and your new big
challenging vehicle in a very established segment does well, I think
you've got to feel pretty good," he said.

Patrick
'93 Cobra