Toyota Motor : Canada auto sales fall back in red in September

(Reuters) - Auto sales in Canada fell in September from a year earlier with new light vehicle sales in the country down 3.7%, according to industry data released on Tuesday.

Light vehicle sales in September fell to 166,488 units from 172,974 units, a year earlier.

The fall in September numbers comes after a brief respite in August, when sales rose slightly following seventeen months of declines.

September performance lined up fairly closely with year-to-date results, down 4.1% with 1.50 million units sold, falling from 1.57 million units in 2018, according to a report released by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, a market research firm that tracks the sector.

Total sales of passenger cars dropped 18% in September, while light truck sales rose 1.9%.

In total, a dozen reporting brands noted sales increases in the month but key losses among higher volume brands such as General Motors, Nissan and Toyota resulted in an overall decline, the report added.

(Reporting by Shanti S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)