Business torrents

DETROIT — Sales of cars and light trucks in the U.S. are still behind last year’s pace, but they rose 13 percent in May when compared with April, even as two of the nation’s automakers grappled with reorganizations.

Compared to May of last year, sales from major automakers fell nearly 34 percent, according to Autodata Corp. estimates, but company executives said buyers may have become "desensitized" to news surrounding the bankruptcy protection filings of Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp., and opted to enter showrooms.

"Obviously it gives us a lot of confidence that some of the negative issues we had to deal with are behind us," said Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president of North American sales and marketing, said on a conference call with reporters and industry analysts Tuesday.

General Motors — still the largest U.S. automaker in terms of market share — said sales fell 30 percent from a year earlier, but they improved 11 percent from April as consumers pushed the automaker to its best sales month this year Overnight payday loans.

Chrysler U.S. sales fell 47 percent in May, selling 79,010 cars and light trucks. The company said its sales were pulled lower because it didn’t sell any cars to fleet buyers such as rental car companies, but its retail sales to individual buyers were the best they’ve been all year.

With 789 dealers set to stop selling the company’s cars next week, many of those purchases were fueled by deep discounts.

Ford Motor Co. posted even better results as it continued to snatch market share from its crosstown rivals, pushing past Toyota Motor Corp. to recapture the No. 2 spot in market share behind GM. Ford said its May U.S. sales fell 24 percent from last year but rose 20 percent from April, and its share of the U.S. market rose to the highest level since 2006.

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