SUBARU: 10th consecutive year of record sales, best month ever

Subaru of America ended 2018 with its best U.S. sales month ever and also reached a decade of yearly sales records.

Subaru's U.S. sales in December inched up 1.9 percent to 64,541 units, surpassing August 2018's sales record of 64,088.

For the year, Subaru sold 680,135 vehicles, hitting a goal the automaker set of 680,000 units for the year, up 4.9 percent from 647,956 units sold in 2017.

The three-row Ascent crossover, with sales of 7,733 units in December, had its best month since going on sale in June.

Subaru's streak of year-over-year sales increases now stands at 85 months.

2018 also marked the 11th consecutive year of sales increases.

Notable nameplates: Outback down 13% in December, down 5.3% in 2018; Forester up 1.2% in December, down 3.4% in 2018; Crosstrek down 8.2% in December, up 31% in 2018; Impreza down 27% in December, down 11% in 2018; Legacy down 27% in December, down 20% in 2018; WRX/ WRX STI down .3% in December, down 8.4% in 2018; BRZ up 18% in December, down 7.2% in 2018

Incentives: $1,102 per vehicle, down 12% from a year earlier, ALG says

Average transaction price: $29,463, up 5.6% from a year earlier, according to ALG

Quote: "With strong demand for Crosstrek, a full year of the all-new Ascent and Forester, as well as the launch of new products in 2019, we look forward to building off this successful year with continued growth," Jeff Walters, Subaru of America senior vice president of sales, in a statement.

Did you know? The automaker's now decade-long streak of record yearly U.S. sales began in 2009, when Subaru sold 216,652 vehicles, according to the Automotive News Data Center.