Toyota  today announced global production  data for September. Worldwide production for Toyota, Daihatsu and Hino was down 5.8 percent in September, which saw Chinese factories  closed and sales boycotted.  January through September, global production is up 37.6 percent to 7,681,891 units. (Read More…)

Yes it is that time of the month, the time for our acclaimed monthly rendezvous: the World Roundup, now in its 7th installment.

Last month, the Subaru XV made the headlines by toppling the VW Golf in Switzerland. In September, the Focus is on China (capital F intended)…

You can check out previous World Roundups here for March 2012  (“Has the Hybrid era started for good?”), April 2012 (“Big change coming from India”), May 2012 (“GM and Toyota Etios make headlines”), June 2012 (“Geely CK writes history in Ukraine“) and July 2012 (“The Subaru XV topples a legend in Switzerland”).

Had enough of the world and you just want to know which cars sell best in your own backyard? Easy. You can visit 170 countries and territories in my blog, one by one, in the comfort of your own lounge. Yes sir.

Back to our Roundup.

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The European new passenger car market accelerated its downward trend in September. According to data release by the European manufacturer body ACEA, Registrations were down 10.8 percent YoY to 1,099,264 units in the EU. Nine months into the year, the market contracted 7.6 percent to 9,368,327 units registered January through September 2012. (Read More…)

Vehicle sales in China were down 1.75 percent compared to the same month last year, says the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).  An official of the CAAM blamed it on the Japanese. (Read More…)

Volkswagen hasn’t published its group sales for September yet (it is expected to do so later in the week), but Reuters already saw a PowerPoint slide with 6.802 million vehicles on it, sold between January and September. This would mean an increase of 10.6 percent in the first nine months.  Volkswagen published Audi sales yesterday, and Volkswagen Passenger Vehicle sales (see below) today. Looking at these numbers, the 6.8 million are quite possible. (Read More…)

Smiles in Ingolstadt and Wolfsburg, where Audi contributes 40 percent of Volkswagen Group’s profits: Audi’s global sales climbed 13.6 percent in September to 136,600 units delivered worldwide. 1,097,500 cars were sold in the first nine months, 12.8 percent more than in the prior-year period. (Read More…)

Some have quietly or openly been hoping the GM could cash-in on the misery of Japanese brands in China. It’s not happening. Sales across all of GM’s Chinese joint ventures were up a marginal 1.7 percent in September while sales of German marques received a boost. (Read More…)

The public may have been surprised by the very strong showing of the market and the not so strong showing of GM and Ford when the September sales came in yesterday. Jessica Caldwell of Edmunds and Jesse Toprak of TrueCar weren’t surprised at all. They called the market with high precision. Separated by only 0.2 points, Caldwell made first, Toprak second, followed far behind by Peter Nesvold of Jefferies. (Read More…)

September saw big gains for Volkswagen and Honda, two brands that have been pilloried by the motoring press for apparently sub-par products, while Chrysler led the Big Three in gains, if not volume.

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First September sales reports are coming in, and they are a mixed bag. Chrysler says it had the best September since 2007 with sales up 12 percent. GM’s sales are up only 1.5 percent , while Ford reports zero percent growth.
Volkswagen sold 36,339 vehicles in September, up 34.4 percent. Toyota’s sales are up a whopping 41.5 percent to 171,910 units in September 2012.

Watch this space for more sales coverage throughout the day.

For most of the year, the German new car market could defy Europe’s eye-popping g-forces. No more. Germany is now officially going down with the rest of them. With 250,082 units sold in September, German new car sales dropped 10.9 percent as compared to September last year. (Read More…)

Bad European car sales are about to get worse.  French September car registrations dropped 18 percent year-on-year, while Spain’s plunged 37 percent, Reuters reports. (Read More…)

September was the month when the torrid growth of Japanese car sales came to an end. Sales of all cars were down 3.4 percent in Japan. The market is down for two reasons, mathematical and governmental.   (Read More…)

A day after TrueCar and Kelley handed in their sales forecasts for September, Edmunds followed. Edmunds is more on the cautious side and projects that 1,145,344 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. this month for an estimated Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of 14.4 million light vehicles, and up 8.8 percent from a year before. (Read More…)

The month is coming to an end. A sure indicator: The forecasters are submitting their guesses. Again, September seems to be up solidly. More. Or less. (Read More…)