NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group Tuesday reported increased U.S. vehicle sales last month while Ford Motor Co. saw sales slide due to weakness in fleet sales.

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GM, the world's No. 1 automaker, said sales rose 5.6 percent to 349,841 vehicles from a year earlier. Sales of pickup trucks and sport/utility vehicles rose 3.8 percent to 196,106, while car sales jumped 8.6 percent to 157,011.

"GM's February sales improved nicely compared to last month and the prior year, giving us momentum as we move into the spring selling season," GM group vice president John Smith said in a statement.

Chrysler, the North American unit of German automaker DaimlerChrysler AG, overcame a sharp decline in sales models to post a 1 percent gain in overall sales compared to a year earlier to 172,647 vehicles. Its light truck sales jumped 8 percent to 137,247, while its car models, a relatively small part of its sales total, fell 18 percent to 35,400.

Chrysler, said it saw a 7 percent gain in retail sales to individual customers. It did not give details about the drop in fleet sales in the period.

At Ford, the nation's No. 2 automaker, overall vehicle sales fell 2.4 percent from a year earlier to 261,694.

Sales of light trucks rose 4.3 percent but car sales sank 13.4 percent.

The company said much of the drop was due to a decision to cut back fleet sales to businesses, particularly to rental car companies that generally pay less for vehicles. Hertz, the nation's No. 1 rental company, is owned by Ford.

"We're convinced this is the right thing to do from a long-term perspective but the withdrawal of this in some months is sometimes painful," said George Pipas, manager of sales analysis for Ford.

The company said sales to individual retail customers rose 1 percent in the month, while fleet sales sank 11 percent.

Shares of GM (GM: down $0.05 to $48.60, Research, Estimates), a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, and DaimlerChrysler (DCX: down $0.14 to $44.91, Research, Estimates) edged lower in afternoon U.S. trading following the report. Ford (F: up $0.13 to $14.12, Research, Estimates) shares edged higher.