Toyota's U.S. sales in Feb fall less than estimates

Toyota Motor Corp.'s February U.S. sales fell less than analysts had estimated amid congressional scrutiny of the automaker, while Nissan Motor Co. led gains among the biggest Asia-based brands.

Toyota sold 8.7 percent fewer vehicles than a year earlier, compared with increases of 29 percent for Nissan, 13 percent for Honda Motor Co. and 11 percent for Hyundai Motor Co. Toyota was expect to drop at least 10 percent by industry data provider Edmunds.com and 27 percent by pricing service TrueCar.com.

"I thought Toyota would be off by double digits," said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst at Kelley Blue Book, an auto pricing and data service in Irvine, California. "It seems to indicate there's still a lot of residual support for the company."

The second consecutive monthly decline for Toyota, the world's largest automaker, comes as it works to repair more than 8 million vehicles worldwide to correct defects linked to unintended acceleration. Toyota announced incentives in the U.S. yesterday to win back customers, including no-interest loans and discounted leases on top-selling models.

Industrywide sales rose 13 percent in February, led by Ford Motor Co.'s 43 percent surge and a 12 percent increase for General Motors Co. Those gains and an increase of less than 1 percent for Chrysler Group LLC gave U.S.-based automakers a combined 46.6 percent market share for the month, more than the 44.8 percent for Asian competitors, according to Autodata Corp.