NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. posted April US sales that missed analysts' estimates even as the auto market may have continued to strengthen.

Deliveries rose 6.4 percent from a year earlier at Detroit- based GM, 25 percent at Ford and 13 percent at Honda, the companies said yesterday. Analysts expected gains of 7.2 percent for GM and 28 percent for Ford, the averages of six estimates compiled by Bloomberg, and 15 percent for Honda, based on four projections.

The automakers fell short of the estimates as the industrywide sales pace may have increased for the sixth straight month from a year earlier. April's industry annualised rate was 11.4 million light vehicles, based on the average of eight analyst estimates. It was 9.3 million in April 2009.

"The consumer continues to struggle with unemployment, even though people are spending a little more," said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.

"Ford and GM have come in pretty close to our expectations. Still, from an economic standpoint, we don't have the steady upward trend from all indicators."

GM sales rose to 183,997, from 173,007 a year earlier, according to a statement from the largest US automaker.

The company is trimming half of its eight US vehicle brands under a plan to return to profit after a government-backed bankruptcy. GM said sales for the four brands it's keeping rose 20 percent to 183,091, including gains of 36 percent each for Buick and Cadillac.

Ford, second biggest in the US, reported an increase to 167,543 vehicles sold, from 134,401. Sales excluding the Volvo brand that it's selling also rose 25 percent, the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker said in a statement.

Honda Motor Co., the second-largest Japanese automaker, sold 113,697 cars and light trucks in April, rising from 101,029, Chris Martin, a spokesman For the Tokyo-based company, said in a telephone interview.

The industrywide sales rate for April may be less than the 11.8 million in March, when Toyota Motor Corp. started offering its biggest incentives to counter global recalls, spurring competitors to offer their own discounts.

Manufacturers, dealers and investors use the annualised rate to compare monthly totals by taking into account seasonal buying patterns.

Toyota sales may have risen 34 percent, the average estimate of 5 analysts. The Toyota City, Japan-based automaker extended the no-interest loans and discount leases it began in March, and competitors followed.

No. 3 Nissan Motor Co., based in Yokohama, Japan, is projected to post a 57 percent gain.

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said in a statement it sold 44,023 vehicles last month, a 30 percent increase from 33,952 a year earlier. That was less that the estimate of a 35 percent gain from Edmunds.com, a Santa Monica, California-based provider of industry data.

Industry sales matching analysts' estimates would still underscore the market's contraction in the recession. Annual US deliveries averaged 16.8 million last decade through 2007.

The 2008 total was 13.2 million, and 2009's tally of 10.4 million was the fewest in 27 years, according to industry researcher Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.