THE ECONOMY : Domestic Car Sales Rise Amid the Gloom

Sales of domestically built cars and trucks rose in mid-August despite reports of declining consumer confidence, according to figures released Tuesday.

Car and light-truck sales rose 11.8% for the 10 major domestic auto makers in the Aug. 11-20 period. Truck sales, which have been strong for months, continued to dominate the auto makers’ business.

Leading the pack was Ford Motor Co., which reported a 23.6% overall increase. Ford truck sales increased 36.7%, and car sales rose 13.7% from the same period a year ago.

“There’s just more people coming through the door right now,” said Bill Simmons, general sales manager at Dick Strauss Ford, a dealer in Richmond, Va.

“Our main problem with sales in August is that our inventories are starting to get slim,” he said. “We had assumed that this year things would be the same as last year, and now all of a sudden everything’s getting better.”

However, the Conference Board reported Tuesday that consumer confidence was down in August to its lowest level since March. The widely watched economic survey said consumers were more negative than in July, both in terms of their view of the current situation and expectations for the immediate future. Since June, the index has fallen about 20%.

Analysts said that can only be bad news for auto makers.

“There’s been a recovery in the auto market, but it’s a slow recovery--much slower than we and a lot of others expected,” said Steve Girsky, an analyst with PaineWebber in New York.

“You have economic uncertainty, you have political uncertainty. All that doesn’t make consumers want to go out and buy a new car . . . especially after just paying off the last five-year car loan.”

There were nine selling days in this year’s Aug. 11-20 period compared to eight last year.

General Motors Corp. reported a 2.9% overall increase in sales. But that was buoyed largely by a 19.3% rise in truck sales. Car sales fell 6.9% from last year’s period.

Chrysler sales, estimated by Ward’s Automotive Reports, rose 18.8%. Again, truck sales accounted for the bulk of the growth, with a 36.7% jump. Car sales fell 9.3%.

Nissan reported a 49.2% increase in car sales over the same period last year, and Toyota reported a 9.8% rise.

American Honda’s overall sales dropped 16.5%.