ALEXANDRIA, Va. -

Limited by such factors as the continued challenges from the Japanese earthquake, low consumer confidence and Hurricane Irene hitting the East Coast, import automakers’ new-vehicle sales were essentially static in August, according to the American International Automobile Dealers Association.

Despite last month’s flatness, however, AIADA remains confident September will tell a different story for import brands.

“A number of factors, including the timing and trajectory of Hurricane Irene, contributed to August’s flat sales,” said AIADA president Cody Lusk. “In September, a return to normal inventory levels by Japanese brands combined with Americans’ bottled-up demand for cars should create an improvement in sales.”

Specifically, imports moved 551,991 units in August, down 0.6 percent year-over-year, according to an AIADA chart citing Autodata Corp. Through the first eight months of the year, sales have totaled 4.47 million units, up 6.4-percent from the year-ago period.

AIADA noted that Japanese automakers were especially struggling.

Sales for the Honda brand dropped 24.6 percent to 73,267 units, while the Toyota brand was off 13.6 percent at 111,380 sales. Subaru moved 20,837 units, marking a 6.3-percent decrease.

Lexus dipped 7 percent with 18,103 sales, Infiniti’s 9,024 sales were down 4.3 percent and Acura declined 21.5 percent to 9,054 vehicles sold.

Interestingly enough, the Nissan brand bucked the trend, moving 82,517 vehicles for a 22.4-percent increase.

Sharing another noteworthy result, AIADA had this to say about Hyundai, which moved 58,505 models in August: “Even unstoppable Korean automaker Hyundai saw sales decelerate in August; inventory shortfalls slowed its growth to 9.1 percent.”

However, some imports were particularly strong, AIADA noted, giving the examples of Kia — which pushed its sales up 26.9 percent to 41,188 units — and Volvo, which enjoyed a 17.4-percent lift with 5,215 sales.

Moving along, AIADA also shared some market share trends.

Asian brands commanded a 42.6-percent share, versus the 42.8 percent they had the prior month. Europeans’ share dropped from 9.6 percent to 8.9 percent. Domestics took 48.5 percent of the market, compared to their 47.6 percent share in July.

As far as the most popular vehicles in August, four of the top 10 best-sellers in the U.S. were imports.

The Toyota Camry/Solara ranked the highest at No. 3, while the Nissan Altima placed fourth, the Hyundai Sonata ranked seventh and the Honda Accord was No. 9.

AIADA also provided the following graphs to better illustrate its data: