EL PASO, Texas -- On a Saturday afternoon, the Zepeda family spent their time looking for a new car.

"We want to get something a little bit better for our family," said Alejandra Zepeda.

They shopped for several deals at Viva Ford, but were holding out for one thing.

"Well we want to look more for a little bit more of a decent monthly payment," Zepeda said.

Other dealerships across the country would love to have customers like the Zepedas. Analyst think December sales for U.S. auto makers will not be good news on Monday. Across the country car dealerships are already reporting sales declines of up to 40 percent and they think the downward trend will last this year.

But here in the Borderland, the cars at Viva Ford are rolling off the lot.

"Sales in December were pretty incredible we've actually sold a lot of cars,” said Viva Ford sales manager Phil McClerran. “Made a lot of great deals."

McClerran said the dealership has actually seen sales increase 20 to 30 percent more in December 2008 compared to December 2007. Managers at other dealerships like Dick Poe and Shamaley also said they've seen great sales in December. Shamaley sales manager David Logston said GMCs and Pontiacs sold the best at its dealership. Dick Poe sales manager Steve Shorter, which carries Chrysler, said they’ve seen more foot traffic in the past two weeks.

But it's not all in cruise control on car lots in El Paso.

"The banks, they're not lending out a lot of money right for people with not a very good credit,” said Zepeda. “We're still in that process."

A few months ago, the economy forced Viva Ford to lay off a few workers. Managers said they hope to rehire them. But they believe that auto sales have hit rock bottom, and they only way to go from here is up--- or in this case off the car lott. If the slumping sales hold true for December of 2008, it will be the first year that cars outsold SUVs and trucks since 2000.