Shanghai General Motors Co. -- the joint venture that markets the Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac brands -- sold 115,733 units last month, up 15 percent year-on-year.

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co. -- GM's joint venture that sells commercial vehicles -- appears to be recovering from soft sales earlier this year. China's largest microvan maker said domestic sales surged 18 percent to 119,012 vehicles.

GM's Wuling joint venture produces the Sunshine microvan, China's top-selling model. The price-sensitive microvan segment suffered a downturn this year after the government eliminated sales subsidies in December.

Wuling cut microvan prices in May and offered further discounts in July, and sales began to rebound. The venture also entered China's passenger vehicle segment this summer with its first car, the Baojun 630 sedan.

Due to relatively weak sales in the first half of this year, GM and its Chinese joint ventures sold 1,892,862 vehicles in China in the first nine months of this year, up 7 percent.

But sales are starting to pick up in the second half of 2011 if September's results are any indication.

While industry sales for September are not yet available, GM appears to be out-performing the industry. In August, industry sales of light vehicles rose 6 percent, pushing industry light vehicle volumes up 5 percent for the year, according to JD Power.

Power forecasts sales for the full year will rise 3 percent.

Other analysts are predicting an industry sale increase of 5 percent for the year -- a decided contrast to 2010, when automakers struggled to keep up with a 33 percent sales increase.

FAW-GM Light Duty Commercial Vehicle Co. was the only GM China venture that suffered a downturn in September. Sales last month slumped 27 percent from a year earlier to 4,821 units.

GM China didn't release export figures for September.