TORONTO - Toyota Canada's sales ploughed ahead again in November and Ford Canada also gained ground for a change but General Motors, Chrysler and Honda all had double-digit declines from the same month last year.

Overall, it was a tough month for Canadian car and light truck sellers -- with industry volumes of all makes and models of declining by 10.3 per cent to 105,221 in November, down from 117,284 a year ago.

General Motors, the industry leader in terms of total volume, said Tuesday the number of cars and light trucks it sold in November was down 23.5 per cent from the same time last year.

Chrysler Canada sales fell 15.6 per cent while Honda Canada, which had been grabbing market share from its North American rivals early in the year, said its sales fell 33 per cent from November 2007.

In contrast, Toyota Canada continued to grow sales of Toyota and Lexus-branded cars and trucks to a company annual record.

For the first 11 months of this year, Toyota Canada has sold  214,406 vehicles, well ahead of its previous best full year in 2007, when it sold 201,326. That included 12,792 vehicles sold last month, up by 1.9 per cent over November 2007.

Ford's Canadian sales, which had plunged by more than one-tenth in October, showed some life last month. It sold a total of 16,109 vehicles in November, according to DesRosiers Automotive reports, up 1.3 per cent from 15,909 in the same month of 2007.

GM Canada said its sales in November fell to 21,486, from 28,071 in the same month of 2007. GM's sales drop in the United States was even bigger -- down 41 per cent from November 2007.

The majority of autos produced in Canada by all of the automakers are exported to the United States, so the drop in U.S. vehicle purchases has had a huge impact on them.

Politicians in Ottawa and Washington are grappling with what aid to provide the auto industry in the face of dropping purchases by American buyers.

GM Canada's car sales fell by 35.4 per cent, to 8,419 vehicles, from 13,028 in November 2007. The decline in light truck sales was less dramatic, dropping 13.1 per cent to 13,067 from 15,043 a year ago.

For the first 11 months of 2008, GM's total vehicle sales have fallen by 10.6 per cent to 337,300 from 377,379 in the comparable period last year.

General Motors pointed to the Pontiac Vibe and Chevrolet Malibu as bright spots in its product lineup, with their Canadian sales up 27.2 per cent and 131 per cent respectively. It didn't release volumes.

Chrysler Canada said its November sales fell to 15,560 for the month of November, down 15.6 per cent from 18,445 in the same month of 2007. For the first 11 months of 2008, Chrysler had 210,702 sales in Canada compared to 213,729 in the same period last year.

"With only one month remaining, Chrysler Canada is on track for another solid year," said Reid Bigland, President and CEO of Chrysler Canada.

"The credit crisis is creating a very challenging economic environment right now. However our current product line up is well-suited for the Canadian marketplace and will carry us through this difficult period."

Honda Canada said little in its brief announcement that total sales fell to 9,224 units, down 33 per cent from November 2007.

Politicians in Ottawa and Washington are grappling with what aid to provide the auto industry in the face of dropping purchases by American buyers.

Toyota Canada said nearly half of its November sales were of vehicles built in Ontario, where the company has factories in Cambridge and Woodstock.

The four Canadian-built models are: Toyota Corolla (3,229 sold in November, up 61.5 per cent); Toyota Matrix (1,440 sold, up 30.3 per cent), Toyota RAV4 (1,614 sold, up 37.6 per cent) and Lexus RX 350 (423 sold, up 57.8 per cent.)

Honda also builds cars in Ontario but the number of vehicles built in Ontario by the two Japanese automakers, and the number of people they employ, are dwarfed by the Detroit Three's Canadian subsidiaries.