The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) released its October sales, and they confirmed the rumors that they were nothing to write home about. Total automobile sales are down 1.07 percent compared to October 2010. Production rose less than 2 percent. Passenger vehicles still outpace the overall market, up 1.42 percent.

Commercial vehicles keep dragging the market down. In October, sales of commercial vehicles were 9.93 percent below the same month in 2010. Homegrown brands continue to lose market share at 29 percent.

In the first ten months  of the year, slightly above 15 million vehicles were sold, indicating that the year should end at around 2010 levels.

In light of the underwhelming performance of the general market, the performance of GM China is astounding. October sales across all brands of GM China were up 10.4 percent. Usually, GM tracks the market.