August Auto Sales: Nissan sales rise

Nissan North America Inc. said U.S. August sales rose 13.6 percent to 108,493 units from 95,527 units in August last year.

The Japanese automaker benefited from higher sales of its trucks and SUVs, a notable development given the recent surge in fuel prices and industrywide slump among large vehicles.

Frontier sales rose 55.5 percent to 9,140, while Xterra sales surged 76.9 percent to 8,208. Sales of its new Rogue crossover totaled 6,639.

Sales of Nissan's Infiniti luxury line rose 8 percent to 11,076 from 10,252 a year ago.

For the first eight months of the year, Nissan sales advanced 1 percent to 726,133 compared with 718,784 during the same period last year.

U.S.-traded shares of Nissan rose 19 cents to $15.36 in early afternoon trading.