RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: Here's NPR's Sonari Glinton with the details.</s>SONARI GLINTON: Sales for GM and Toyota each went up more than 40 percent. All the other car companies saw double digit growth.</s>JESSE TOPRAK: U.S. consumers love to spend.</s>SONARI GLINTON: TrueCar.com's Jesse Toprak says these days it doesn't take much to get consumers in the showrooms.</s>JESSE TOPRAK: The fact that we haven't spent much in the last two years is a complete anomaly, and it doesn't take us much to convince to get into that shiny new car and get the new car smell.</s>SONARI GLINTON: Dean Baker with the Economic Policy Institute says good car numbers can't outshine one very dark spot - construction.</s>DEAN BAKER: And a factor making it worse is the overall demographics and all the baby boomers, most of them are in their 50s, some already in their 60s. They're moving into smaller homes. Our population growth is much slower. It's going to take us a long, long time to whittle down this excess supply of housing.</s>SONARI GLINTON: So this is a story that's going to be with us for...</s>DEAN BAKER: Sonari Glinton, NPR News.
GM, Toyota and Nissan all saw sales booms last month. GM sales were up nearly 50 percent. Ford and Chrysler sales were also up, but not by as much. Automakers helped manufacturing remain strong. But can Detroit help lead a comeback to other sectors of the economy like housing?