March 1 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp.'s February U.S. sales unexpectedly rose on demand for trucks. Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. also had gains, while sales fell at Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG.

GM said in a statement today that its sales rose 3.4 percent from a year earlier. The increases were 12 percent at Toyota, 3.2 percent at Honda and 1.2 percent at Nissan. Ford reported a 13 percent decline, and DaimlerChrysler said sales fell 7.7 percent.

The gain at GM came even as its sales to so-called fleet customers such as rental-car companies fell 18 percent. U.S.- based automakers GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler are betting they can restore profit by cutting discounted sales to fleet buyers. Ford in its February results cited a 30 percent decline in sales to rental agencies.

New truck models for GM were ``probably the determining factor in the increase,'' said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Industrywide sales fell 0.5 percent to 1.25 million cars and light trucks, according to Autodata Corp. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate was 16.6 million, unchanged from February 2005 and higher than the 16.1 million estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts and economists. The analysts also estimated an average decline of 7 percent for GM sales.

Production, Market Share

Asian automakers led by Toyota have been boosting sales and market share as the U.S. companies cut back. Ford today reduced its North American production plan 14 percent for the second quarter and GM lowered its plan for the quarter 5 percent.

As U.S. automakers scale back in the region, Toyota on Feb. 27 said it will build a $1.3 billion plant in Tupelo, Mississippi, to produce sport-utility vehicles. It will be Toyota's eighth assembly plant in North America.

``There has been a relentless downward trend in the market share of the domestic makes of U.S. producers, and the revenue side of these companies have suffered badly,'' said Dana Johnson, chief economist at Comerica Bank in Detroit. ``I don't see the bottom at this point.''

The combined market share of GM, Ford and Chrysler's U.S. brands fell to 54 percent in February from 56.6 percent a year earlier, according to Autodata. GM, including its European Saab brand, increased its share 1 percentage point to 24.6 percent.

Asian automakers held 39.4 percent of the market last month, an increase from 37 percent in February 2006.

GM

GM, the world's largest automaker, reported a gain to 311,763 vehicles from 301,545 a year earlier. The increase was paced by a 7.9 percent rise in light trucks, including a 27 percent surge for the redesigned Silverado large pickup truck.

New light-truck models including the GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook, which are sport-utility vehicles built on car platforms, also contributed to the increase.

The Detroit-based automaker's car sales fell 3.3 percent.

GM sales analyst Paul Ballew said the company's sales to individual customers were ``a bit above expectations.''

The automaker next quarter plans to cut production by 62,000 cars and trucks from the 1.26 million it built in North America a year earlier, Ballew said. About 40,000 of that is for rental cars, he said. GM is trimming first-quarter output 16 percent.

Ford

Ford's February sales fell to 211,150 from 244,021. The company said it plans to build 770,000 cars and trucks in North America during the second quarter, a decline from 897,000 a year earlier. Most of the drop reflects discontinued models and cutbacks in sales to car-rental companies, Ford said.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker is reducing production in the region 16 percent this quarter from a year earlier, after trimming fourth-quarter output 24 percent.

The first-half production cut will be 15 percent, company sales analyst George Pipas said on a conference call.

Ford last year discontinued the Taurus sedan, which was sold almost exclusively for rental use. The company is reviving the Taurus name for the sedan now called Five Hundred.

The February results included declines of 12 percent in sales of F-Series pickup trucks and 26 percent for Explorer SUVs.

Pipas said Ford plans ``more aggressive'' advertising, and the company unveiled a series of new ads earlier today.

Toyota, DaimlerChrysler

Toyota's sales rose to 187,330, the company said in a statement. The increase was led by an 87 percent jump in sales of Prius gasoline-electric cars to a 12,227, a most in any month.

Toyota also sold 9,669 of its new Tundra large pickups in February, the model's first month of availability. The bigger, redesigned Tundra is built in San Antonio.

Even with the gain, Toyota trailed both Ford and DaimlerChrysler for the first time since March 2006. Toyota moved past DaimlerChrysler in 2006 for third in the U.S. in annual sales. In January, the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker outsold both DaimlerChrysler and Ford.

For DaimlerChrysler, total sales fell to 191,810 from 207,723. Sales at Chrysler decreased 8.3 percent from a year earlier to 174,506, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company said. The Mercedes-Benz decline was less than 1 percent to 17,304.

Honda said its February sales of 110,026 vehicles were a record for the month and were led by CR-V small SUVs and Accord midsize cars. The Tokyo-based company is fifth in U.S. sales.

The gain to 85,218 at Nissan, Japan's third-largest automaker, was led by models including the new Sentra and Versa small cars, Altima sedan and Infiniti G35 sports car, said Brad Bradshaw, the Tokyo-based company's U.S. sales chief.

GM shares fell 36 cents to $31.54 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Ford declined 14 cents to $7.77 and U.S. shares of DaimlerChrysler fell 56 cents to $67.51. Toyota's American depositary receipts dropped $2.32 to $131.28.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Koenig in Southfield, Michigan at wkoenig@bloomberg.netAlan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 1, 2007 16:52 EST