Last week I reported on the January 2009 auto sales and the news was dire for some companies – Chrysler posted a more than 50% decline in sales over January 2008. However, when looking at automobile specifics, one small and fuel-efficient car came out with a gain in sales – the Honda Fit.

In January 2008, there were 4,480 Honda Fits sold in the United States. In January 2009, this number was up by 1.8% to 4,745. This isn’t a drastic gain but when you look at the fact that American Honda’s sales for the month were down by 27.9%, this 1.8% looks a bit more impressive.

Honda’s Civic Hybrid didn’t fare as well as the Fit. In January of 2008, 1,745 Honda Civic Hybrids were sold. The numbers for January 2009 were down by 40.7%; only 1,076 were sold last month.

Although Honda’s fuel-efficient subcompact posted an increase in sales, Toyota’s counterpart didn’t. There were 7,666 Toyota Yaris’ sold in January 2008 and only 4,440 sold in January of 2009. This represents a 44.3% decline. The best-selling hybrid, the Toyota Prius, posted a 31.4% decline of January 2008 selling only 8,121 units in January 2009. Overall, Toyota sales for January were down by nearly 32%.

I tried to find some specific numbers for the GM line of hybrids but only found this on the GM Media site:

“A total of 923 GM hybrid vehicles were delivered in the month, illustrating the wide range of hybrid product offerings available. GM offers the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade 2-mode hybrid SUVs, the Chevrolet Malibu and Saturn Aura mid-size sedan, and Saturn Vue compact crossover hybrids.”

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I would just like to reiterate my enthusiasm for the upcoming Honda Insight. I hope that the vehicle will come in under the $20,000 mark.

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