European Brands Lose Market Share in U.S.

America's car and light-truck market grew 11% to 1.21 million units in October, according to Autodata Corp. The annualized sales pace zoomed to 15.2 million units from 14.2 million year on year.

Sales by traditional domestic brands jumped 16% for General Motors, 14% for Ford and 11% for Chrysler. The surge enabled the Big Three carmakers to capture 46% of the American market, up 1.5 points from a year ago.

European brands boosted volume 11% to 125,200 units in October. Advances by Mercedes-Benz (+25% to 32,100) and BMW (+4% to 27,600) offset an 18% drop to 28,100 units for Volkswagen. It was the first time in three years that Mercedes outsold VW in the American market. But their share dropped to 10.4% from 11% in October 2012.

Asian makes accounted for 526,800 sales in October, up 9% year on year. But that wasn't enough to prevent their market share from declining to 43.6% from 44.4%.