STEVE INSKEEP, Host: NPR's business news starts with a small car boom.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, Host: I think it was paying $4.25 a gallon yesterday at the pump - something like that and that's apparently normal - gas prices topping $4 per gallon in many parts of the country. And so small cars sales have raced ahead. GM says its passenger car sales rose 49 percent - spurred on by sales of 25,000 Chevy Cruze cars. At Ford, the Focus helped propel that carmaker's sales. And, Chrysler also enjoyed big gains. The laggard here was Toyota. Toyota is April sales were nearly flat because production was still disrupted by the March earthquake.
With gas prices topping $4 a gallon in parts of the country, small cars sales have raced ahead. General Motors says its passenger car sales rose 49 percent — spurred on by sales of 25,000 Chevy Cruze cars. At Ford, the Focus helped propel that carmaker's sales. And, Chrysler also enjoyed big gains.