Vehicle sales skidded 2 per cent last month as a slide at DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc., Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. and General Motors of Canada Ltd. overshadowed another strong performance by offshore-based manufacturers.

Auto makers based in Asia and Europe saw their sales jump 7 per cent in September from year-earlier levels, pushing their market share last month to 43 per cent, compared with 40 per cent a year earlier.

Overall sales fell to 138,847 in the month, from 141,671 in September, 2002, despite aggressive incentives that included interest-free loans for six years at one auto maker, interest-free loans for five years plus $1,000 cash at another, and end-of-model-year enticements from virtually every company.

"Sales do continue to improve from the very weak levels we saw in the first half of the year," Carlos Gomes, an economist with Bank of Nova Scotia said yesterday.

The annualized rate last month sat at about 1.68 million vehicles, Mr. Gomes said, compared with 1.6 million during the first half of the year, so the Canadian market is on pace to meet his forecast of about 1.65 million in sales for all of 2003.

The market-share gains by the offshore-based makers came at the expense of DaimlerChrysler, Ford and GM, each of which posted sales declines from year-earlier levels.

GM sales fell 8 per cent to 43,085 cars, trucks, minivans and sport utility vehicles from 46,749 a year ago. The year-earlier sales were the best September on record for the Oshawa, Ont.-based unit of the world's largest auto maker.

Vehicle sales tumbled 11 per cent at Ford to 18,877 from 21,203, despite the best September sales since 1999 for its flagship F-series pickup trucks, which have been redesigned for the 2004 model year.

The jump in F-series sales was offset by a plunge of 27 per cent in passenger car sales to 4,947 from 6,761 for the Oakville, Ont.-based company.

Windsor, Ont.-based DaimlerChrysler jumped back into third spot in September after being knocked out of the top-three ranks in August by Toyota Canada Inc., despite a 5-per-cent slump in sales to 16,991 from 17,910. Truck sales were flat, and car sales tumbled 20 per cent to 3,714 from 4,637.

As a sign of the problems DaimlerChrysler and Ford are having on the passenger car side of the business, Honda Canada Inc. C sold more of one model alone -- Civic compacts -- than DaimlerChrysler or Ford did for all their car models.

Honda sold 5,844 Civics, the best September on record and a performance that helped push the division to a record September.

Toyota's overall sales jumped 21 per cent last month to 14,814 from 12,225 a year earlier.

Hyundai Auto Canada Inc., Mazda Canada Inc., Nissan Canada Inc. and Volkswagen Canada Inc. also sold more passenger cars than DaimlerChrysler.

Nissan and BMW Canada Inc. also posted record September sales.