Automakers ended a miserable year with some less bad sales figures, though the Ford Motor Company was the only one of the three domestic companies to report higher numbers in December, according to The New York Times.

Ford said its sales in the United States rose 33 percent in December from a year ago, making it the company's best month since May 2008.

New-vehicle sales in the United States increased 15 percent last month, the industry tracking firm Autodata said Tuesday. But for the year, foreign and domestic automakers combined sold only about 10.4 million vehicles; that was down 21 percent from 2008.

"It was a decent end to a bad movie," said Jesse Toprak, the vice president for industry trends and insights at TrueCar.com, a site that tracks sales and pricing. "The healing has started, but we're nowhere near fully healthy yet."