Toyota, Nissan and Honda Rise in February

Showcasing how low fuel prices are fueling the light-truck trend, body-on-frame SUVs were Toyota’s biggest gainers in February.

The Toyota 4Runner rose 32.0% and the Lexus LX jumped 81.1%, helping the No.1-selling Japanese automaker to a 4.2% increase in the U.S. (there were the same number of selling days last month as in February 2015). Overall, Toyota sold 187,954 vehicles in the U.S. last month.

Toyota and Lexus’s smallest, car-based utilities also played a role in the positive month, with the RAV4 compact CUV recording its best February sales, 25,523, and the RAV4-based Lexus NX up 39.1% to 3,709.

With the exception of the discontinued FJ Cruiser and Venza models, as well as the Tundra fullsize truck, all Toyota-brand light trucks saw increases last month, including the body-on-frame Sequoia and Land Cruiser, rising 11.5% and 11.7%, respectively.

Nearly all Lexus light trucks were in the black, minus the GX SUV which slipped 0.2%.

The recently redesigned RX rose 10.8%.

Toyota cars managed to eke out a small gain in February. The Corolla, up 5.4% to 29,342, was the only Toyota or Scion nameplate above year-ago. The 6-month-old Scion iA and iM added roughly 3,600 units, offsetting Prius, Yaris, Camry and Avalon declines.

Among Lexus cars, all model lines (barring the discontinued, low-volume LFA supercar) fell below year-ago levels.

The Lexus GS was the car losing the most volume, down 37% from February 2015.

New Models Propel Nissan

Nissan can credit strong performances from new or updated models for its 10.5% February gain.

The Titan fullsize pickup truck posted a 29.9% jump, selling 1,060 units last month vs. 816 year-ago, and the recently refreshed Sentra compact car rose 34.2% with 20,599 February deliveries.

However, the strongest increases were recorded by still-fresh but year-old models the Maxima and Murano.

Maxima large sedan sales jumped 128% rise and the Murano rose 85.9%.

Not doing as well was the usually buoyant Rogue. The compact CUV had a flat month, up just 0.7%, although its 21,561 deliveries made it the second-best selling Nissan in February after the Altima.

The refreshed Altima midsize sedan slipped 0.5% to 28,320 deliveries.

The aging Quest minivan continues its resurgence thanks to generous incentives, with sales up 279.6% to 2,566, while the Leaf continues to slump in the face of low fuel prices and the loss of the government incentives, down 22.4% to 930.

Infiniti sales fell 11.1% last month, with only the QX50 compact CUV and the QX70 midsize CUVs in the black, up 688.7% and 25.1%, respectively.

Honda Small Cars Do Well

Despite low fuel prices driving the market toward trucks, Honda’s small cars had a good month, helping lead the automaker to its best February result ever in the U.S., 118,985 units.

The recently redesigned Civic sedan helped that model line gain 31.7% over year-ago. Its 27,785 sales, also a February record, made it Honda’s No.1-selling model last month, and put it 2,000 units ahead of the Accord.

The redesigned Civic coupe goes on sale in mid-March in the U.S.

At Acura, the Civic-based ILX soared 56.4% from year-ago, with 1,500 delivered.

Honda still saw mixed results from its light-truck lineup, with the CR-V rising 13.2% and the Odyssey up 11.4%, but the larger Pilot falling 24.2%. Honda blames reduced inventories on the Pilot’s decline, as well as the strong year-ago comparison. Honda was selling down the previous generation Pilot in February 2015.

Thanks to a drop in CUV sales, Acura fell 1.7% last month to 12,773 units. MDX was down 5.7% and RDX slipped 1.7%. A refreshed MDX is due this year, with the model to be unveiled in a few weeks at the 2016 New York International Auto Show.

Acura’s TLX sedan also saw reduced sales, with deliveries falling 9.9%.

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