New car sales were strong in December; see last month's and last year's 20 top sellers

December's new car sales were the highest of any month in 2009, with many key models picking up significant volume and most automakers posting a sales gain over December 2008, but it wasn't enough to rescue the entire year.

The Ford F-Series full-size pickup and Toyota Camry midsize sedan were yet again the nation's favorite vehicle and car, respectively, both December and throughout 2009.
Ford also saw strong success from its redesigned Fusion midsize sedan, which jumped from 17th place in 2008 to a slot on the top-10 best-selling list of 2009, and its Focus compact and Escape midsize weren't far behind. The Escape was also the best-selling SUV in December, unseating the Honda CR-V that itself had stolen the crown from Ford's Explorer several years ago.

General Motors, meanwhile, had an excellent month for its Chevrolet Malibu midsize, which beat out the Fusion and Nissan's Altima in December to be the country's third-best-selling midsize sedan, behind the Camry and Honda Accord. The Chevrolet Equinox compact/midsize SUV also did well at over 12,000 units -- a record for the model -- and the compact Chevrolet Cobalt's sales improved from abysmal to just mediocre. GM did, however, see its best-seller -- the Chevrolet Silverado pickup -- slide below both the Toyota Camry and Corolla last month even as its own sales jumped significantly month-to-month. (see sales charts below the article)

In other Ford/GM news, the automakers' ongoing rivalry between the Mustang and Camaro retro muscle cars saw the Ford inch closer to the sales of its rival, narrowing a once-mighty gap to just over 1,000. This Mustang sales increase comes even as Camaro sales stay strong at 7,500 last month and in the same month that Ford announced it would give massive upgrades to next year's Mustang.

The top-ten list seems mostly familiar for the total of 2009, but some major changes in December suggest 2010 might be an interesting year for auto sales. See the two sales charts below:
Source (via autoblog);
http://www.examiner.com/x-1017-DC-Car-Examiner~y2010m1d5-New-car-sales-were-strong-in-December-see-last-months-and-last-years-20-top-sellers