While still down considerably, the auto industry has begun to pick up a bit of steam lately. In fact, industry analysts at Edmunds went as far as to predict that General Motors would increase its market share for the month of October.

Less than two weeks after Edmunds' prediction, GM global market and industry analysis director Mike DiGiovanni told the Detroit Free Press that the automaker will increase year-over-year sales for the month of October. And GM will achieve that sales uptick with 95 percent of vehicles sold coming from GM's four core brands. The remaining 5 percent comes from Pontiac, Saab, Hummer and Saturn. Last October the four endangered or extinct brands represented 15 percent of GM's overall sales.
Not only will GM's sales be increased versus October 2008, they will also best last month's tally by a considerable margin. The automaker sold 168,719 units in October 2008, so the expected year-over-year increase will likely place the General somewhere north of 170,000 units for the month, or at least 10 percent more cars and trucks than the 154,000 September 2009 sales. The month-over-month increase doesn't come as too much of a surprise, though, as September was negatively affected by the hangover generated after Cash for Clunkers ended.