NEW YORK, Sept. 1 (Kyodo) — New car sales in the United States in August increased 7.5 percent from a year earlier with major U.S. automakers enjoying robust sales, while Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. continued to see double-digit drops, according to data released Thursday by a U.S. research firm.
Toyota saw its sales fall 12.7 percent to 129,483 units following a 22.7 percent drop in July, while Honda posted a 24.3 percent drop to 82,321 units, compared with a 28.4 percent decrease in July, according to Autodata Corp.
In contrast to the two Japanese automakers, which still seem to be suffering from the aftermath of the March earthquake and tsunami disaster in their home country, the "Big Three" U.S. carmakers all registered double-digit gains in the reporting month.
Overall new car sales in August totaled 1,072,283 units, after eking out a 0.9 percent increase in July.
General Motors Co. retained its position as the top-selling U.S. automaker by selling 218,479 units, up 18.0 percent, with its market share standing at 20.4 percent.
Ford Motor Co. saw its sales climb 11.1 percent to 174,800 units for a 16.3 percent market share, remaining the second-biggest carmaker.
Despite the continued year-on-year drop, Toyota maintained the No. 3 position with a share of 12.1 percent, followed by the other "Big Three" U.S. automaker, Chrysler Group LLC, which sold 127,013 units, up 27.5 percent, for a share of 11.8 percent.
The combined sales of the three U.S. carmakers increased 17.7 percent to 520,292 units, boosting their combined market share to 48.5 percent from 47.6 percent in July.
Among other Japanese carmakers, Nissan Motor Co. continued to see its sales increase, jumping 19.2 percent to 91,541 units, following a 2.7 percent rise in July.
Nissan retained its No. 5 position in the U.S. auto market with a share of 8.5 percent, after overtaking Honda as the fifth-biggest automaker in July. Honda's share stood at 7.7 percent in August.
Mazda Motor Corp.'s sales grew 14.7 percent to 22,632 units, and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. sold 7,985 units, up 86.0 percent. Suzuki Motor Corp. saw its sales jump 31.6 percent to 2,409 units.
Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., known for its Subaru brand, continued to see its sales decrease year on year, down 6.3 percent to 20,837 units, following a 9.4 percent fall in July.
