August Was Good To Detroit For Car Sales

Car buyers poured into dealer showrooms last month with Chrysler Group LLC, General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. F each reporting double-digit sales gains in August from a year earlier.

General Motors' U.S. auto sales rose 10%, Chrysler's rose 14%, and Ford's results improved 13%.

The strong gains came even as Toyota Motor Corp.'s U.S. auto sales climbed 46% from a year ago, when natural disasters hurt production.

Broadly, U.S. new auto sales for August are expected to rise 20% from a year ago and 12% from July, car-shopping website Edmunds.com said last week. Edmunds had expected GM to report a 6.4% rise from a year earlier.