October was a much-needed shot in the arm for US light vehicle sales. Over the course of two days of reporting, there were new sales records and most automakers came in well ahead of last October.

When all was said and done, sales totaled more than 947,000 units, up 17.5% from last year. This yielded a seasonally adjusted selling rate (SAAR) of 12.26m light vehicles. Excluding the rebate-fueled results from August 2009, that’s the best SAAR since September 2008.

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Chrysler was a big winner, up 42.1% led by a huge, dancing-in-the-streets, 305.2% jump in sales of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee. Jeep was Chrysler’s hottest brand in October. About the only downside is that strong Honda sales pushed Chrysler back into fifth place.

Ford sold 23.6% more vehicles last month than they did a year ago. The F-series has sewn up another year as America’s bestseller and the Fusion is currently the best-selling American car. Ford was surprisingly weak in SUVs: the Expedition and Explorer both missed their 2009 numbers and the unloved Flex was the poorest-selling Ford brand vehicle.

General Motors sales were up 8.1%. Core brand sales rose 17.6% with double-digit gains from Buick, Cadillac and GMC but those were dragged down by GM’s abandoned brands. It’s worth noting that GM’s core brand sales are sufficient to keep it in the number one position.

Toyota sales fell 0.9% as a big drop posted by Toyota cars wiped out improvements in Lexus and Toyota-brand truck sales. Only the Scion tC managed to hit its 2009 numbers; the Tundra was the only full-size pickup to come up short.

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Honda recovered from its September dip, coming in 19.8% ahead of October 2009. Solid truck sales provided the foundation. The recently redesigned Odyssey minivan came within 45 sales of hitting the 10,000 mark.

Nissan was in the black by 20.4% on strong truck sales and a nice bump in Infiniti sales.

Mazda sales rose 19.5% driven by the 5, CX-7 and CX-9, all of which finished 40% or more ahead of last year. 629 buyers took home new 2 small cars in October.

Jaguar sales jumped 52.3% in October, trumping Land Rover’s 42.0% improvement. Volvo sales dropped 0.9%. Saab’s numbers were up 49.8%.

Subaru posted its numbers on Tuesday, announcing a monthly record and the expectation that it would hit an all-time annual sales record within days. It hit the record on Wednesday.

The market shift to light trucks is on course: they accounted for 52.8% of October sales.

2010 is shaping up as an 11.5m to 11.6m sales year. After 10 months, the total is just over 9.5m sales so 12 million probably isn’t in the cards.

What is up in the air now is 2011. Many welcome the change in Washington, but others see more gridlock, which could damage a still fragile recovery. However, automakers are showing they’ve got the goods and more exciting products are on the way to entice consumers back into showrooms.