US carmakers posted strong sales figures in March, helped by a series a incentives designed to lure new buyers and take advantage of Toyota's recall woes, according to dpa. General Motors Co reported Thursday that vehicle sales increased 21 per cent from March 2009 to 188,546, overtaking rival Ford after briefly losing the top spot in the US car market in February. Ford Motor Co reported a 40-per-cent jump in sales to 183,783, continuing its strong gains as the only one of the major US carmakers to avoid bankruptcy last year. GM remains majority controlled by the US government after getting billions of dollars in loans in 2009. Both carmakers were hoping to capitalize on Japanese maker Toyota Motor Corp's publicity nightmare of the last few months. The world's largest carmaker has been forced to recall more than 8 million vehicles worldwide because of unintended acceleration issues as well as brake problems in its Prius hybrids. Toyota is still expected to post gains when it reports vehicle sales later Thursday, largely due to its own round of major incentives designed to avoid a collapse in demand. Chrysler, the third-largest US carmaker, continued to struggle in its effort to rebound from last year's bankruptcy. Its sales fell 8 per cent to 92,623.
