NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The holidays were very good to U.S. automakers, as General Motors Corp. December sales soared above year-ago levels, while No. 2 Ford Motor Co. posted modest gains and Chrysler Group notched an increase in U.S. sales as well.

GM, the world's largest automaker, had a 36 percent increase in U.S. sales for the month to 473,663 vehicles. The sales burst brought the company's full-year sales to only 0.9 percent below year-ago levels, a far stronger outlook than expected earlier in the year.

GM's sales gains were well balanced between cars and light trucks, which include pickups, minivans and sport/utility vehicles, with car sales up 37 percent and light trucks up 36 percent.

Ford sold 304,293 new vehicles in the U.S. market during December, up 8.2 percent from a year earlier. Car sales increased 16.3 percent, while light trucks increased 4.9 percent.

And Chrysler Group, a division of DaimlerChrysler AG (DCX: Research, Estimates), said U.S. vehicle sales rose 1 percent to 172,494 in December, led higher by Jeep sales. But overall 2002 sales fell 3 percent.

The latest results left Ford's 2002 sales of 3.6 million vehicles off 8.8 percent from the prior year, when it sold just under 4 million. But December sales were enough to prompt the company to raise production plans for the first quarter by 10,000 to 1.01 million vehicles.

"We're encouraged by our steady progress in winning back U.S. market share," Ford Group Vice President Jim O'Connor said. "We're a stronger company than we were a year ago when we announced the revitalization plan. Our goal in 2003 is to build on the foundation we laid in 2002."

Ford said its F-Series pickup truck again was the nation's best-selling vehicle, with 813,701 sold. It also said the Ford brand held on to the title of best-selling brand in the nation, a distinction it lost to GM's Chevrolet at one point earlier in the year.

Despite the strong sales, shares of both GM (GM: down $0.45 to $38.50, Research, Estimates) and Ford (F: down $0.24 to $9.70, Research, Estimates) were slightly lower following the reports. DaimlerChrysler (DCX: Research, Estimates) also fell.