Do you drive a truck or car?

Nissan car sales are up I saw as I scanned the business horizon today.

From NissanNews.com:

Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) today reported sales of 84,947 units in October, up 8.8 percent from the prior year. Nissan Division sales increased by 9.8 percent over last year. Infiniti Division sales increased by 1.8 percent versus the prior year.

I did a quick search on the state of the automobile industry and saw in 2006 that light truck sales were outpacing car sales.

Even with ever-increasing gas prices, pickup trucks continue to outsell cars. In fact, the top three best selling vehicles since 2001 have been trucks. One reason for the popularity of trucks in recent years is their increased size and cabin space, as well as the increased availability of four-door crew-cab pickups. Due to the increased interior space, crew cabs make pickup trucks more attractive to families. The pickup truck is no longer regarded as a utilitarian vehicle. Rather, it has become a multifunctional family vehicle.

And today there was this report on General Motors and Toyota with light truck sales still brisk.

General Motors posted improved October sales, outpacing gains at Japanese rival Toyota Motor, as Americans turned back to light truck models rather than the car models that had be gaining ground.
GM (Charts, Fortune 500) posted a 3.4 percent gain in passenger vehicle sales compared to a year earlier, helped by an extra sales day this year.

So what do you prefer? Cars, trucks, SUVs or CUVs (Cross-over vehicles). I drive a 1996 Nissan Pathfinder with 126,000 miles that I bought in January this year from my mechanic. I expect to get another 100,000 miles from it and I drive an average of 30 - 40 miles a day right now.

My wife drives a 2001 Chevy Astro van with about 130,000 miles.

And we have a 1987 Nissan Maxima that has 157,000 miles we use to putt-putt around town.

By the way, here's a link to a report the Federal Reserve did in September on the auto industry.

And the other item in today's news came from Chrysler, which is eliminating up to 12,000 jobs.