Global passenger car sales fell by about 1m – or 6 per cent – to 16.2m in the third quarter, General Motors said on Wednesday, as it reported a drop nearly twice that level in its own quarterly sales.

America’s largest automaker, which narrowly outsold Toyota worldwide last year, said it had sold more than 2.1 m vehicles globally during the third quarter, down 11.4 per cent on the third quarter of 2007. This brought its total sales in January to end-September to around 7m, down 5.8 per cent on a year ago.