Volkswagen has long wanted to be the world's No. 1 automaker, and selling 10 million vehicles in 2014 definitely won't hurt that goal.

The German automaker says it's on pace to do just that thanks to sales in China and Europe that have offset a weak showing in Brazil and the U.S.

September sales were up 3 percent to 881,300 units, according to Automotive News.

The company has reported sales from across all of Volkswagen Group, which owns Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda, Porsche, Audi and Bentley.

Nine-month sales for the automaker jumped 5 percent to 7.4 million vehicles. However, U.S. sales were down 5 percent to 439,600 units and South America was down 21 percent, thanks to a 16 percent drop in sales in Brazil.

"Despite the continuing big challenges in the markets, we have the opportunity now to reach the 10 million mark in deliveries this year, four years earlier than originally planned," Christian Klingler, VW Group's sales boss, said in a statement reported by Automotive News.

All of Volkswagen Group's brands rose in sales, with Audi up 10 percent, Skoda up 13 percent and Seat up 10.5 percent.

To be clear, the 10 million units are global and not just in the U.S., but the growth is a good sign for an automaker that has stated in the past that it wants to wrest the top-dog mantle from Toyota. The 15 percent rise to 2.72 million units in China, VW Group's biggest market, helped with that goal, as did the 8 percent gain to 1.5 million vehicles in Western Europe.

Even Eastern European sales were up 2 percent, to 481,100 (that also includes Central Europe) despite a 13 percent loss in Russia due to the Ukraine crisis and sanctions from western governments.

Volkswagen has launched a redesigned Golf and updated Jetta, and it remains to be seen how those new products might drive sales.

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