Canadian car and light truck dealers had their best August in history, according to sales figures released Tuesday.

Total light vehicles sales last month were 158,394, up 3.1 per cent from August of last year, DesRosiers Automotive Consultants said.

"The numbers look pretty good so far," Dennis DesRosiers said in an e-mailed note. "Indeed, this is the highest August sales total in the history of the auto sector in Canada, so the liquidity crisis does not appear to be affecting Canadian vehicle sales just yet."

Sales for the year are on track for more than 1.65 million units, DesRosiers said.

"Not a record year, but a very healthy year and much better than any analyst, including ourselves, predicted a year ago."

GM Canada, Chrysler Canada, and Ford of Canada all sold more vehicles in August —collectively picking up market share from the import nameplates. "Fleet sales, deep discounting, and product availability" led to their improved performance, DesRosiers said.

GM said sales of its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 1500 trucks soared by 54 per cent in western Canada. Last week, the automaker chopped 1,200 jobs at its Oshawa truck plant, citing lower demand for those two truck models in the U.S. Most of the vehicles produced at that plant are destined for U.S. export.

The slumping U.S. housing market has put a damper on the longer-term outlook for truck sales in the U.S. But U.S. sales figures released Tuesday actually showed that GM actually sold more trucks in the U.S. last month. Analysts attributed that to more aggressive discounting.

Toyota sales fell 4.9 per cent in Canada and by three per cent in the U.S. "Reduced credit tied to the subprime squeeze challenged consumer confidence this month," Jim Lentz, Toyota's U.S. sales chief, said in a statement.

Ford's U.S. sales dropped 14 per cent in August, while Chrysler's U.S. sales fell six per cent.