New car automobile sales continue to climb in January, as car makers and analysts predict that 2012 could be the best year auto manufacturers have seen since 2007. The industry’s annual selling rate rose to 14.18 million as sales increased over 11% from January 2011. The strongest sales were seen in small cars, which rose to almost 20%, while truck sales increased less than 4%. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Suzuki, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Isuzu all posted modest gains despite inventory shortages from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan at the end of March and Thailand floods in October. Chrysler had an impressive monthly sales increase of 44%, with Volkswagen close behind reporting a 40% gain. General Motors saw a drop of almost 6% mostly due to inflated sales in 2011 from big discounts, and Chevrolet Volt sales suffered in December after a government investigation into battery fires.