Sales of new cars, trucks and buses rose 10 percent from a year ago to 316,264 vehicles in May, sources said. Sales ebbed 5 percent from April, which had one more working day.

New registrations in the first five months of the year are running more than 8 percent ahead of the same period in 2012, when sagging sales led President Dilma Rousseff to roll out tax breaks for locally made vehicles.

Fiat SpA continued to lead sales of new cars and light trucks in May, according to the sources' data, with 67,850 new registrations in Brazil. General Motors Co sold 53,829 cars and light trucks in the month, passing the 53,442 sales registered by Volkswagen AG.

Ford Motor Co sold 27,546 passenger vehicles last month and Hyundai Motor Co passed Renault SA in sales, with 19,102 cars and light trucks sold compared to 18,111 vehicles.