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"  August Auto Sales: Boom and Gloom   August auto sales can be interpreted as good news and not so good news. Overall, U.S. new car and light truck sales totaled 1,631,755 vehicles for August, down 4.3% from strong sales a year ago. However, August sales also translated to a seasonally adjusted, annualized selling rate of 19 million vehicles, the strongest sales pace so far this year, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing statistics from Autodata Corp.   The performance was credited to both a strengthening economy and heavy incentives.   GM sales were 469,574, down 4% after adjusting for an extra selling day in the month compared with a year ago. Ford reported a 15% drop, to 310,380 cars and light trucks. &amp;#039;s passenger-car sales fell 28%. Group&amp;#039;s sales fell by 6%,   But sales at zoomed 11% from last year to 200,482, the first time Toyota has had a 200,000-plus sales month. Indeed, Toyota&amp;#039;s August sales were just 7,514 vehicles behind the combined sales of Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz, although sales of parent company DaimlerChrysler for the year are 343,000 vehicles ahead of Toyota.   &amp;#039;s sales of Nissan and Infiniti brand vehicles rose 14%. Infiniti, Nissan&amp;#039;s luxury brand, rose 59% for August. Honda sales grew 7.3%.   Among other companies reporting August sales:   Volkswagen said it had sold 32,376 vehicles in the United States in August, down 7% compared to the same month a year ago. VW said it had sold 204,008 vehicles in the world&amp;#039;s biggest car market so far this year, a 13.9 percent drop from 236,929 sold by this stage in 2002. Porsche said it had sold 2,389 vehicles in the United States and Canada in August, 16 percent more than a year ago boosted by sales of its Cayenne sport-utility vehicle. Acura sales totaled 16,204, up 2.9 percent compared to last year. Subaru reported August sales of 19,879 units, the best sales month in the company&amp;#039;s 35-year history, breaking the previous record set in 1987. Mitsubishi reported August sales of 27,380 units, the company&amp;#039;s best sales month of 2003 and the third consecutive month of increasing sales. Still, the August 2003 total was down 9.1 percent compared to record August sales in 2002. Suzuki posted a 6% decrease in overall sales compared to August 2002. Kia had the best sales month in the company&amp;#039;s history with 24,758 units sold during August. Sales for August were up 5.1 percent versus the same period last year. Mercedes-Benz reported August sales of 17,583 vehicles, down from last year but the company said its year-to-date volume of 142,213 is up 4.4 percent over last year. Hyundai said its sales of 41,073 vehicles for the month of August set a new all-time record for Hyundai sales in the U.S. The BMW Group (BMW and MINI brands combined) said sales were up 3.4 percent in August with 23,068 vehicles versus the 22,315 vehicles reported in the same month of 2002.   GM Posts 2004 Incentives   General Motors is keeping the discounting war going by carrying over most of its financing and cash-back deals on 2003 models until January 2, 2004.   GM is also offering zero-percent or low-interest financing and rebates ranging from $500 to $3,000 on a number of 2004 models, which are just going on sale. These offers run through September 30.   GM also announced the continuation of its &amp;quot;thank you&amp;quot; program, which gives active duty members of the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and National Guard $750 cash back on the purchase or lease of most new 2003 and 2004 GM cars and trucks, through September 30.   Toyota Improves SUV Safety   Starting this month, Toyota says it will equip all of its SUVs with electronic stability control systems, according to a story in The Detroit News.   The devices, known by a variety of brand names, intervene to prevent the type of skidding that often precedes deadly rollovers.   Produced by Bosch GmbH, Continental Teves, TRW and other electronics specialists, the devices use sensors to detect loss of control. The system then applies brake pressure to one or more wheels, and can even slow down the engine, to steady the vehicle.   It costs an automaker around $400 to $500 to install electronic stability control in a vehicle, the News said, citing suppliers. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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