Automobile Sales at Five-Year High for General Motors

GM’s sales growth beat an estimate of 1.9% from auto industry information site Edmunds.com. April was a soft month for sales, but May appears to have picked up the slack. Edmunds expects sales from all automakers to rise 11% month over month.

The largest increase came in GM’s Cadillac division, where total sales jumped 40% year over year. Buick sales were down 3.1% year over year, and Chevrolet had its best retail sales month in nearly four years.

Year to date, GM’s total sales are up 8.3% and retail sales are up 10%.

At Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM), U.S. sales rose 2.5% in May to 207,952 vehicles, up from April’s total of 176,160. The weaker yen also has pumped up the Japanese carmaker’s profits, which are expected to rise by more than 40% in 2012.