SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — U.S. auto makers basked in the glow of easy year-over-year sales comparisons on Friday, with Chrysler Group LLC’s 61% surge leading a trio of double-digit September gains.

Toyota Motor Corp. TM, -1.34% , Honda Motor Co. HMC, +1.36% and Nissan Motor Co. NSANY, -2.63% also joined in the industry’s barrage of improved numbers. Toyota posted a 16.8% gain to 147,162 vehicles, while Nissan registered a 34% jump to 74,205.

Honda’s sales rose 26.1% to 97,361 vehicles.

People visit a dealership of Hyundai Motor in Seoul October 1, 2010. Reuters

Elsewhere, Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. continued its winning ways, handing in a 47.7% increase to 46,556 vehicles.

Overall, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales came in at 11.76 million cars and trucks, according to Autodata, up from a lowly 9.38 million a year ago, when the industry suffered from a hangover created by the cash-for-clunkers sales binge.

Chrysler was the group’s biggest gainer last month. With Italy’s Fiat SpA (F) at the wheel, Chrysler said it sold 100,077 cars and trucks for the month, up from 62,197 a year earlier.

That increase marks the sixth straight month of increases and the second month this year in which Chrysler has topped the 100,000-unit mark, the company said.

Ford Motor Co. F, +0.90% reported a 46% surge while General Motors Co. GM, +2.95% came in with a 10.5% advance.

Paul Ballew, former GM analyst and chief economist at Nationwide, said that September results were pretty much in line with expectations and that he doesn’t see much changing in the fourth quarter.

“This is a sales pattern that is very consistent with a hesitant economic backdrop,” he said. “We’re inching back toward more normal conditions, but the reality remains that we have a very long slog ahead of us.”

Don Johnson, GM’s vice president of U.S. sales, took an upbeat but cautious stance on the current state of the industry during a conference call following the release of the monthly results.

“We still have a fairly weak housing market, and some of the economic and political uncertainties are continuing to put downward pressure on consumer confidence,” he said. “As a result of that, we still believe that the recovery in the second half of the year will be a little bit slower than in the first half. However, we are seeing some positive signs.”

Ford, one of the prime beneficiaries of the government’s sales promotion last year, said it sold 160,873 vehicles in the U.S. last month, up from 109,939 a year ago — marking the 23rd time in the last 24 months that the company has expanded its share of the retail market.

“ “Ford has a solid lead on Toyota and should regain the number two spot for annual sales, which it hasn’t held since 2007.” ” — Ivan Drury, Edmunds.com analyst

Ford, riding the strength of its fuel-efficient line of new cars like the Fiesta, said it’s on track to gain market share for the second year in a row, something the auto maker hasn’t been able to accomplish since 1993.

“Ford bucked a trend this month; typically sales fall about 20 percent from August to September but Ford sales climbed 4.8 percent since last month,” Edmunds.com analyst Ivan Drury said. “Ford has a solid lead on Toyota and should regain the number two spot for annual sales, which it hasn’t held since 2007.”

As for GM, the recovering Detroit giant said it sold 173,155 cars and trucks last month, up from 156,673 in September 2009.

“We said our goal for this time of year was to achieve an orderly transition from past model to the new model year, and we’ve achieved that,” Johnson said. “This helps us lower our overall selling costs and positions us to come out of the gates quickly during the new model year.”

Specifically, sales of the company’s Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands increased 22% to 172,969 units last month. Brands that are no longer part of GM’s future — Hummer, Saturn, Saab and Pontiac — weighed on results, down 99% to a mere 186 vehicles sold.

GMC led the way with a 41.6% surge to 25,995 vehicles, while the luxury Cadillac brand posted an increase of 11.3% to 12,620.