North American Vehicle Sales Increased 3.9% in Early April

Sales of North American-made vehicles rose 3.9% in early April, providing further evidence of recovery from the industry’s two-year recession, figures indicated Tuesday.

“We’re seeing a general underlying stability in the market,” said Thomas O’Grady, chief executive of Integrated Automotive Resources Inc. in Wayne, Pa. “We’re not seeing sales drop even if there’s bad economic news. There appears to be some underlying strength.”

The nine companies that report sales every 10 days said they sold vehicles at a daily rate of 23,806 versus 22,859 a year ago. There were nine selling days in each period.

One of the biggest gains was reported by Ford Motor Co., which said car sales rose 9.1% while light truck sales rose 13.9%. Truck sales continued a trend that has pushed the No. 2 auto maker’s truck sales up by 14.2% for the year.

Ford’s car sales jump included at least some fleet sales, which have become harder to track from period to period. Auto makers have lengthened the time that cars sold to rental companies are in the field, meaning fewer new cars are needed for rentals.

Year-to-date domestic vehicle sales were up 4.1% for U.S. auto makers.

Toyota, one of the Japanese auto makers with plants in the United States, reported car sales were up 63.5%, mostly because of sales of its redesigned mid-size Camry built in Georgetown, Ky.

“We’re seeing a cut in the prime rate. Maybe consumer confidence is coming around a little bit,” Toyota spokesman Jim Fewel said. “There’s no direct link but some kind of trickle-down.”

Chemical Banking Corp. in New York cut its prime rate to 6.25% on Monday, but so far, no other big banks have followed suit. The prime is the basis for many other loan rates, including some adjustable car notes.

General Motors Corp. said its combined car and truck sales fell 1.2%. Car sales were down 1.9% and truck sales up 0.3%. For the year to date, GM’s combined vehicle sales are up 2.0%.

Chrysler Corp.’s combined car and truck sales rose an estimated 2.2%, according to Ward’s Automotive Reports. The trade publication uses market trends adjusted for seasonal factors such as production pace, incentives and fleet sales in computing its estimate.

Chrysler does not release 10-day sales reports.

Big Three vehicle sales were up 3.5% in early April and 3.9% for the year to date.

Sales of U.S.-made Japanese vehicles were up 6.9% on the strength of Toyota. All other Japanese makers except Honda and Isuzu were down.

Year-to-date sales were up 5.4%.