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Toyota, Honda, Nissan

Toyota, Japan's largest automaker, sold 242,675 vehicles in March, up from 217,286 a year ago, the Toyota City, Japan-based company said in a statement.

The increase was led by the gasoline-electric Prius hatchback, which more than doubled from a year earlier to 19,156, the company said. Tundra pickup sales rose 12 percent.

Honda sales rose to 143,392 from 128,806, the company said in a statement. The increase included gains of 23 percent for the Accord sedan and 2.6 percent for the Civic small car. Tokyo-based Honda also sold 4,235 of its new Fit small car.

Nissan's gain to 111,119 cars and trucks was led by the revamped Altima sedan, Versa small car and Infiniti G35 sports car, Katherine Zachary, a spokeswoman for the Tokyo-based automaker's U.S. unit, said.

Among other Asian companies, Mazda Motor Corp., a Ford affiliate based in Hiroshima, Japan, sold a record 37,742 vehicles, a gain of 48 percent from a year earlier and the largest such increase in 26 years, spokesman Eric Booth said. Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp., said its sales rose 22 percent to 12,536.
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