The traditional low season for car purchases has stabilized the growth in vehicle sales in China, while Japanese auto brands again lost steam.

The deliveries of passenger cars and commercial vehicles gained 8.3 percent to 1.49 million in August, up slightly from the 8.2 percent rise in July, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday.

The slight gain lifted China's auto sales to 12.47 million units in the first eight months, bringing the cumulative growth this year to 4.1 percent from 3.6 percent by July.

However, the Japanese car brands saw their sales drop 2 percent to 226,900 units in August, trailing the 11.3 percent growth overall in this segment. The sales marked only a 2.3 percent monthly gain compared with the industry-wide 8.8 percent growth.

Nissan Motor Co, the Japanese automaker with the biggest domestic market share, saw a mere 0.6 percent annual rise in August sales to 95,200 units. Toyota Motor Corp'shina sales plunged 15.1 percent last month to 75,300 units though it plans to more than double its annual deliveries between 2011 and 2015.