Car Makers See Best Sales Month Since ’90 : Automobiles: Sales of cars and trucks surge 11.5% in April. The numbers come as a surprise to many analysts.

DETROIT —  New car and truck sales surged in April to their best levels in 2 1/2 years as consumers went on an early spring buying spree, figures released by the auto makers showed Tuesday.

Sales exceeded estimates of many industry analysts.

“We seem to have gotten a one-month jump on the spring selling season compared with falloffs in April the last two years,” McDonald & Co. analyst David Garrity said.

However, the analysts said they were concerned that the strength of passenger car sales in April might not continue this month and into June.

Total car and truck sales in April, including imports, were up 11.5% over April, 1992. That translated to an annualized selling rate of just under 14 million, the highest since September, 1990.

Late April sales of domestically built vehicles were up 10.2%, contributing to an annualized selling rate of 14.5 million for the April 21-30 period. Auto executives are reviewing earlier estimates that predicted a total vehicle market for 1993 at 13.5 million to 13.7 million.

But Lehman Bros. analyst Joseph Phillippi said: “We are still working our way out of the some very severe problems. I’m still concerned that you don’t have the job creation that would give you a big (sales) spike.”

In fact, the government’s chief economic forecasting gauge plunged 1% in March, the worst decline since the middle of the recession more than two years ago, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

The biggest auto sales winners in April were General Motors Corp., Chrysler Corp. and Nissan Motor Corp. USA.

At GM, passenger car sales continued a comeback as low-profit sales to daily rental companies dropped 9.1%, and retail sales were up 14.4%. On the truck side, the Chevrolet and GMC truck divisions set monthly records. Combined car and truck sales were up 10.9%.

One standout at Chevy was a 37% increase in sales of its Blazer small sport-utility vehicle. Chevrolet has held the price on the truck while increasing its content. The top-of-the-line Blazer, with a $1,000 cash rebate, undercuts Ford Motor Co.’s Eddie Bauer edition of the Explorer and the Jeep Grand Cherokee by $4,000 to $6,000, said Kurt Ritter, Chevrolet truck marketing manager.

“You can’t make a record like this without all your players making a contribution,” Ritter said.

At Chrysler, combined car and truck sales were up 27.8%, the best in five years. Retail sales were at their highest level since August, 1989, said Theodor Cunningham, executive vice president of sales and marketing.

“Last month, I said our truck sales were amazing,” Cunningham said. “Clearly, I spoke too soon. But what pleases me more is the momentum in car sales.”

Chrysler has been riding the success of its trio of new mid-size models--Chrysler Concorde, Dodge Intrepid and Eagle Vision. New versions of the New Yorker and the all-new LHS now are trickling into showrooms.

Ford’s total sales were up 13.8%. Car sales rose 12.5%, while trucks were up 15.2%.

Nissan is showing one of the biggest domestic car percentage increases over 1992--93%--because it is building its mid-size Altima sedan in Tennessee instead of importing it from Japan, as it did the Altima’s predecessor.

Sales of Japanese imports, whose prices are up 15% to 20% because of the strength of Japan’s currency, were up 3.1% in April compared to a 14.9% increase in sales by GM, Ford and Chrysler.

“The imports are getting clocked, which is good for the Big Three,” said Phillippi, the Lehman analyst. “I would suspect they’re hemorrhaging loyalty out there.”