US auto sales steady in September

>> Japan auto sales rise first time in 13 months

A burst of sales of heavier, relatively fuel-inefficient sports utility vehicles and pickup trucks, boosted by increased buyer incentives, helped General Motors, Ford and Chrysler raise their collective market share to 48.1 per cent in September, up from 45.2 per cent a year earlier, according to company sales reports and analyst Autodata Corp.

Total sales by the three in the month were 506,566 vehicles, 16.9 per cent higher than a year earlier, when the industry was still climbing out of the 2008-2009 recession.

The month's total was only slightly down from August, despite worries that falling consumer buying power and political turmoil would hurt sales.

"For GM, all of the factors that say this is a good time to buy a new vehicle outweigh the bad news that appears to be slowing down the broader economic recovery," said Don Johnson, GM's vice president for US sales.

Meanwhile Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda continued to struggle to rebuild from the hit their supply chains took from March's devastating earthquake-tsunami disaster.

Toyota's sales, at 121,541, were still 17.5 per cent lower than a year earlier, while Honda, at 89,532 units, was 8.0 per cent down.

Nissan, though, stood out with a 25.3 per cent year-on-year sales rise to top Honda with sales of 92,964 units.

Edmunds.com analyst Michelle Krebs said higher incentive offers by Chrysler and GM boosted their turnover.

"GM's gain on sales of its fullsize pickups and SUVs appears to be very much incentives-driven and helped by moderating gasoline prices, as is the case for all trucks and SUVs," she said.

She said Nissan's success arose from its having substantial inventory in a range of market segments.

"Nissan has been very aggressive in using advertising to get out the message that it has plenty of inventory," she said.

Total sales for the first nine months of the year, at 8.6 million vehicles, was 10.4 per cent over the same period in 2010, according to Autodata.

In an overall market that shed 2.4 per cent in the day, GM's shares dropped 2.2 per cent Monday; Ford fell 3.1 per cent, Toyota's US traded shares fell 1.9 per cent, and Honda's lost 1.4 per cent.