GM, Toyota report March China sales

General Motors (GM.NYSE) reported strong first-quarter sales in China while Toyota Motor (TM.NYSE, 7203.TYO) posted more middling results as both car makers contend with slowing growth in the world’s largest auto market, The Wall Street Journal reported. GM and its local partners sold 745,152 vehicles in the first quarter, up 8.7% from a year earlier, after March sales rose 11% to buoy quarterly results. First-quarter sales for Toyota and its two local joint-venture partners rose 1.8% year-on-year to about 211,500 vehicles, with March sales up 2.2%, spokesman Takanori Yokoi said. Overall sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles in China slowed considerably last year, rising just 2.5% in 2011 after the government terminated some subsidies for smaller-engine cars and commercial vehicles. Car sales in China rose 46% in 2009 and 32% in 2010.