General Motors gained ground on its rivals with a 4 per cent rise in US sales last month, but Ford sales slumped 18 per cent and sales at Toyota dipped 1 per cent for a third monthly decline.
Overall US September car sales steadied after adjusting for the number of sales days, bucking Wall Street expectations for a decline in the closely watched indicator of consumer demand, sales results released yesterday showed.
The adjusted 1 per cent year-on-year gain in industry-wide sales came despite a housing downturn and tighter credit blamed for driving lower income buyers out of the market for new cars.
Led by GM, major carmakers with newer products on offer did well despite the weaker economy.
Honda posted a near-14 per cent gain boosted by the launch of its new Accord saloon. Sales at Nissan rose 11 per cent, driven in part by gains for the Altima Coupe in its third month on the market.
