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Nissan Surpasses, Honda Misses U.S. December Sales Goals

DETROIT, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co's December U.S. sales narrowly topped and Honda Motor Co <7267.T) sales fell short of expectations as the Japanese companies led off what is expected to be strong sales figures for major automakers in the U.S. market on Monday.

Nissan on Monday said its U.S. sales rose 7 percent to 117,318 vehicles, and that 2014 sales of 1.39 million vehicles were a company record.

However, while Honda's U.S. sales rose 1.5 percent to 137,281 vehicles, that was well short of analysts' expectations of about 143,000 vehicles.

Sales of Nissan's top-seller, the Altima sedan, rose 30 percent in December.

Nissan and Honda were the first major auto companies to report U.S. December sales.

A Reuters poll of 11 analysts showed expectations of a 10.5 percent gain for all U.S. new-vehicle sales over last December.

Low gasoline prices helped boost pickup truck and large SUV sales in the month, analysts said.

And a separate poll of 35 economists polled by Thomson Reuters showed that they expect on average an annualized selling rate for December of 16.9 million vehicles, the highest for the month since before the 2008-2009 industry downturn.

Each month, auto sales are an early indicator of consumer spending.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall Editing W Simon)