RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Vehicle sales in Brazil reached record-high 3,141,226 units in 2009, up 11.35 percent from2008, said Brazil's National Motor Vehicle Distribution Federation (Fenabrave) on Tuesday.

    It is the third consecutive year for the auto sector to break its sales record.

    According to Fenabrave, 3,009,482 cars and light vehicles were sold in 2009, a 12.6 percent increase compared with the previous year; sales of trucks and buses totaled 131,744 units, off 11.9 percent from 2008.

    Meanwhile, motorbike sales declined to 1,609,251 units last year, a 16.4 percent decrease from 2008.

    Last month, Brazil's vehicle sales rose to 293,030 units, a 16.4-percent gain on a month-on-month basis, or a dramatic 50.6 percent surge from the same period in 2008, when financial crisis swept the world.

    According to Fenabrave, it was the highest December sales Brazil had ever registered.

    In 2009, Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat had the largest market share in Brazil, accounting for 24.49 percent of the total. Volkswagen ranked second, with 22.74 percent, followed by General Motors, with 19.79 percent, and Ford, with 10.1 percent.

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