While the Japanese carmaker's sales in the US, its largest market, were down 4.4 per cent, a strong performance overseas boosted its worldwide sales by 2.8 per cent to a total of 2.41 million.

In contrast GM reported a 0.6 per cent drop in its quarterly global sales to 2.25m. Elsewhere, PSA Peugeot Citroen had a successful first quarter, seeing a rise of 2.3 per cent on last year. The group managed to maintain a stable market share in Europe while enjoying a substantial boost in Russia. Meanwhile, Ford has reported net income of $100m (£51m), or 5 cents per share, for the first quarter of 2008. This figure compares with a net loss of $282 million, or 15 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2007.