Business life: My finance news blog

Toyota’s pain is its rivals’ gain.

All major automakers but Toyota reported higher U.S. sales in February, and most took customers from their powerful Japanese competitor, which has been struggling with a series of massive safety recalls.

Toyota Motor Corp. said its U.S. sales fell 9 percent last month, while Ford, GM, Nissan, Honda and Hyundai all reported double-digit growth compared with February 2009, at the depth of the recession.

The gains may have been even higher without the blizzards that paralyzed the East Coast.

Other winners included Kia Motors Corp. and Subaru. Even struggling Chrysler Group LLC saw improvement. Toyota, by contrast, suspended sales of eight popular models in late January. And it spent last week answering questions from Congress about its safety record.

"We feel we’re getting our fair share of the Toyota business," said Susan Docherty, vice president of marketing at GM, whose sales rose nearly 12 percent.

February was the first full month since Toyota’s decision Jan. 26 to halt sales of some of its vehicles in the U.S. because of safety concerns. Those vehicles went on sale again as dealers repaired them, but Toyota’s image suffered.

Ford Motor Co. posted a 43 percent jump in February U.S. auto sales and outsold General Motors Co. for the first time in nearly a dozen years as it grabbed customers from struggling Toyota. Ford sold 334 more cars than GM in the U free credit report online.S. for the first time since August 1998, when GM was in the midst of a strike.

Most automakers reported that sales to rental car companies and other fleet buyers also were strong as companies began buying again after cutbacks last year. Fleet sales generally mean lower profits to automakers than sales to individuals.

Chrysler, for example, said sales rose half a percent, its first year-over-year monthly increase since December 2007. Car sales rose 38 percent, but truck sales dived 28 percent.

Hyundai Motor Co. said its sales rose 11 percent, driven by sales of the new Tucson small SUV. The company’s redesigned Sonata midsize car saw sales rise 58 percent.

The industry was expecting to see gains over February 2009, which was one of the weakest months in a very depressed year. Sales over President’s Day weekend — which traditionally kicks off the spring selling season — were robust, according to automotive website Edmunds.com.

Still, winter storms at the beginning and end of the month hurt sales on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

"Three and a half feet of snow on these cars," Docherty said. "It took our dealers a bit of time to get all that snow off here and get the customers back into the showrooms."

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