Sales of Ford's facelifted 2010 Taurus doubled in October compared with a year earlier. Photo / Supplied

Sales of Ford's facelifted 2010 Taurus doubled in October compared with a year earlier. Photo / Supplied

US light-vehicle sales - bolstered by General Motors' first gain in 21 months - declined less than 1 per cent in October as the industry showed signs of a recovery without the aid of government incentives.

The drop was the smallest this year and made October the year's strongest month aside from August, which received a lift from the federal cash-for-clunkers programme.

The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate was 11.2 million. The rate had not risen above 9.9 million this year without clunkers help.

"Numbers in that range certainly are not, by historic standards, good numbers. But thinking of where we've come from, it's certainly a positive signal," said Jeff Schuster, executive director of global forecasting at the market research firm J.D. Power and Associates.

"We're through the worst, and we're beginning the slow trek to recovery."

Gains from most of the biggest carmakers propelled sales to within 216 units of October 2008's total.

GM's US sales rose 5 per cent last month - the carmaker's first advance since January 2008. Ford grew 3 per cent.

Among Asian carmakers, Nissan climbed 6 per cent, Toyota gained less than 1 per cent and Hyundai-Kia soared 47 per cent. Subaru, Daimler AG, Volkswagen Group and Porsche were all up.

Chrysler Group, meanwhile, plunged 30 per cent as it continued to struggle after its bankruptcy. Mazda and Honda also declined. Suzuki fell 50 per cent, while BMW Group trailed year-earlier sales by 19 per cent.

The results show carmakers benefiting from year-earlier comparisons, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank last October sent the US economy into a deeper tailspin.

Industry sales fell 32 per cent in October 2008, dragging the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate below 11 million for the first time since 1983.

Industrywide sales remained stuck at 27-year lows this year until the federal Government's clunkers incentive pushed demand to rates of 11.1 million units in July and 13.7 million in August. Without the clunkers benefit, September's sales rate dropped to 9.5 million units.

Ford's report of a year-over-year sales gain, its third in the past four months, came a day after the carmaker posted a surprise US$997 million ($1.39 billion) net profit in the third quarter and its first operating profit in North America since the beginning of 2005.

Sales of the freshly redesigned Ford Taurus sedan more than doubled, while deliveries of the car to individual customers almost tripled from year-earlier levels.