It's almost embarrassing how many people here have completely ignored years upon years of economic indicators. First, check any article about October car sales and you'll hear about how October sales were actually weakened by the storm. Secondly, note that this is not just a single month thing - auto sales have been improving for quite some time.
Here's a chart of auto sales over the past 10 years:
Notice the consistent improvement in car sales since bottoming in 2009, and the fact that the current pace is quickly catching up to pre-recession highs. Yes, it's quite possible that we'll meet and exceed pre-recession car sales on an annualized basis by 2014. That's pretty impressive given the negativity repeated here.
Kind of disappointed that a subforum on economics can miss a recovery in auto sales four years after it started. It says a lot about the news sources read by people who participate here. Open your eyes.