General Motors' US sales declined 1.7% in October

General Motors led the pack in US October sales race among the big automakers, with a sales decline of just 1.7 per cent.

For company it had almost all the carmakers as overall, automobile sales in the US were expected to decline between 6 and 8 per cent when all the reports come in. On the other hand car companies that saw sales increases were Hyundai-Kia, Subaru, Tesla, Jaguar Land Rover and Mitsubishi.

Industry sales fell in October, but Karl Brauer with Cox Media said there were a number of mitigating factors that made October sales look less disappointing. He said, "October of 2015 was one of the highest sales months in the history of the industry, so being 'down' compared to last year was almost inevitable," npr.org reported.

The second factor was the sales days in October 2016 versus 2015, he said, adding, along with an East Coast hurricane impacting sales in that region. He said through that filter, the annual rate of sales as of October being 17.7 million vehicles was not bad.  Brauer said, "If this is what a 'down' market looks like, I'm betting most automakers will gladly take it."

Meanwhile, Fiat Chryslers Automobiles (FCA) was charging ahead with Ram with sales of the Ram brand increasing 12 per cent in October, which made it one of the few bright spots for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

FCA's truck brand was the only brand that reported a US sales gain in October and though Ram's showing though expected, was still revealing.

Ram's October sales gain came in the wake of Ram outselling Silverado for the first time in at least five years, achieving the feat in September offering huge incentives that topped $7,000.

FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said earlier this month the automaker plans to keep up the pressure on the industry with Ram incentives.