September Auto Sales Gains Put At 10%, But Down Sharply From August

September Auto sales are expected to gain 10 percent from year-earlier levels while posting a sharp slowdown from August, according to several analysts' estimates Thursday. The estimates over all put the industry on pace to post total 2014 sales of 16.4 million to 16.5 million vehicles, up 5 percent from 2013, according to the trade publication Automotive News. The third-party automotive Web site Edmunds.com forecast an 11 percent gain while LMC Automotive and TrueCar each predicted a 10 percent gain for September sales compared with a year earlier. Edmunds called its September estimate "consistent with the strength we've seen most of this year." General Motors Co.

and Honda Motor Co.

are expected to post leading gains of about 22 percent each, while Ford Motor Co.

is forecast to show a sales decline of 9 percent from a year earlier. Despite the positive year-over year comparison, automakers are poised for a 20 percent tumble from relatively robust August figures. Car makers headed for the biggest sequential sales decline include Toyota Motor Corp.

, projected to see a 28.6 percent drop and Nissan Motor Co Ltd.

at 25 percent. GM and Ford should see sequential declines of 16 percent and 20 percent respectively, Edmunds said. Automakers' shares fell slightly Thursday but appeared largely in step with a larger market sell-off.