Though Hurricane Sandy has reduced the expected SAAR for new-vehicle sales, according to  NADA Used Car Guide’s latest Guidelines report, consumer demand for new rides continued to grow last month.

In fact, total light vehicles sales in October increased by 7 percent on an annual basis to reach 1.09 million units.

“This brought the year-to-date sales total to 11.9 million units, which is an increase of 14 percent over last year’s sum of 10.5 million units,” officials said.

On the other hand, October’s SAAR fell to 14.2 million units from 14.9 millions in September, due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy.

Sales Growth by Brand

Breaking it down by nameplate, two Asian brands reported above average growth this past month, with Toyota and Honda seeing sales climbing 16 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Per Autodata, incentive spending relative to last October was down by an average of $41 for Toyota and $466 for Honda, officials added.

But one Japanese brand experienced very different results: Nissan posted a 6 percent decline in sales for the month, and cut average incentive spending by about $391 per unit compared to last year.

For domestic nameplates, sales seemed to stay relatively flat. Chevrolet and Ford saw gains of 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively, and on average each brand dropped incentive spending by $360 relative to last year (Chevy spent $2,490 per unit, while Ford spent $2,421), per NADA UCG data.

As for Chrysler, all but one of Chrysler’s domestic brands reported growth in October with the exception of Jeep which reported a 5 percent decline in sales.

Moving along, sales for Volkswagen were up 22 percent in October which increased the brand’s monthly growth streak to twenty-six, officials shared.

“Once again, incentive spending for the brand crept up, this time by a bit over $100 to an average of just under $2,000 per unit, they added.

For highline brands, sales at Acura grew by 9 percent while Lexus sales improved by 10 percent.

Sales at BMW were “back on track” as the brand reported a 21 percent increase compared to last year, thereby “marking an end to a four-month sales slump.”

Rival brand Mercedes-Benz was able to continue a thirty-seven month run of growth with a 6 percent, NADA UCG said.

The Inventory Outlook

As for inventory, the month-end days’ supply grew by 14 days on an over-the-month basis to 73 days, according to NADA UCG data.

“This figure is 15 days more than last October’s 58, which was dictated by natural disaster-related production disruptions,” officials added.

For the mainstream sector, brands with higher supply included Mitsubishi and Mazda at 133 and 94 days, respectively.

Korean brands Hyundai and Kia once again posted some of the lowest month-end inventory at 39 days apiece.

On the luxury side, days’ supply for Cadillac and Acura was highest at 123 and 108 days, respectively, while both Audi and BMW inventory remained some of the leanest in the industry at 37 and 30 days, respectively, officials concluded.