The slowing economy has left consumers wary about making big item purchases, but according to a recent auto data report, automobile sales in August rose almost 8% from a year ago and 1.2% from last month. All of the large automakers have showed sales gains for the year to date, except for Honda and Toyota, whose dealers have struggled to keep inventory since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan early this year. Shortages of small, fuel-efficient cars, like the Chevrolet Cruze and Ford Focus, have also lead to increased prices on both new and used hybrid, electric and compact cars.

G.M. said it remains confident that industry sales will top 13 million vehicles this year, back to 2008 levels, when 13.2 million were sold in the United States. They intend to step up production by adding overtime shifts to plants that build the Chevy Cruze, in an attempt to fill the compact car void plaguing the auto industry. Ford said it hopes to increase its overall production by 9% in the fourth quarter from what is was in 2010.

But analysts feel the automakers are “playing chicken” with the economy. Stockpiling extra inventory while consumer confidence declines could lead to too much inventory and price reductions that could end up hurting the industry in the long run.