Set expectations low enough and you are likely to exceed them. After US auto sales reached multi-decade lows in the first half of the year and were then juiced by the “cash for clunkers” scheme in late July and August, some analysts thought going cold turkey in September would be horrific. Instead, it was just bad, with the seasonally-adjusted annualised rate (SAAR) of sales only the second worst of 2009 besides February’s 9.1m. By contrast, August’s taxpayer-stimulated SAAR of 14.1m would have been merely respectable prior to the recession.

Only the months affected by government vouchers saw sales surpass 10m vehicles, but Credit Suisse reckons things will get better in the fourth quarter, pulling full-year sales up to 10.5m. Such predictions were underscored by General Motors, which said that low inventories also squeezed sales, and by Ford, which said the cannibalisation of future sales by clunkers would end soon.