August new car and truck sales across the nation were the best of this year, and contributed to the sales numbers that are expected to boost 2002 to the fourth-best year for car sales in history, after 1999, 2000

and 2001, according to the Miami Daily News.

New-vehicle sales numbers, combined with healthy housing sales, were among the few bright spots in the national economy. "It

certainly was an essential part of keeping this economy relatively robust and was essential to keeping those jobs," said Paul Taylor, chief

economist of the Virginia-based National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).

Nationally, August's 1.7 million new-car sales were up 13 percent from July, a surprising increase for an industry that expected its sales to remain flat for the entire year. The latest national numbers were also higher than the August 2001 sales of 1.45 million.

Taylor attributed the unexpected sales boost to rebates and extended zero percent financing

offers. He has even raised the projections for 2002 national new vehicle sales from 16.3 million to 16.8 million units.