Author: Automotive News Feed

Jeep is hot, hot, hot. Volkswagen is cold as ice. Nothing helps like fresh product on the floor. And nothing aches quite the way that an aging lineup does.

Sometimes the stars align. The weather held, the calendar added both an extra selling day and a fifth weekend, lenders relaxed a bit, factories sweetened the pot. And May U.S. auto sales jumped 11 percent to 1.6 million units.

Nissan Division reported sales of 125,558 cars and trucks for May, an 18 percent increase over May 2013. The new level represents a record for May volume at Nissan.

Ford Motor, paced by record sales of the Fusion mid-sized sedan and Escape compact crossover, posted a 3 percent U.S. sales increase in May.