The strong August car sales numbers helped by the cash for clunkers program provided some summer relief for the auto industry in what has been a rough year so far. While we have posted the list of the top cash for clunkers trade-ins, we decided to look at the month’s top three sales winners in the most popular and fuel-efficient vehicle categories to see which manufacturers came out on top.

Looking at the list, it seems car buyers have made some good choices. All vehicles featured, except the Chevrolet Aveo and the Nissan Versa sedan (not the hatchback), are recommended by Consumer Reports. Further, we were struck that they are all fuel efficient and have better than average owner costs. To highlight this, we included the owner cost scores for each model, which factors depreciation, interest, sales tax, insurance, fuel, and maintenance and repair costs to predict how expensive vehicles may be over the long term.

Make & model	Sales	Owner costs
BUDGET CARS
Nissan Versa	18,580
Honda Fit	13,593
Chevrolet Aveo	12,733
SMALL CARS
Honda Civic	42,294
Toyota Corolla	42,061
Ford Focus	25,547
FAMILY SEDANS
Toyota Camry	54,396
Honda Accord	39,726
Nissan Altima	26,833
SMALL SUVs
Honda CR-V	30,284
Ford Escape	20,933
Toyota RAV4 (4-cyl.)	18,312

The Toyota Camry was the top-selling vehicle overall last month by a huge margin. Most of the top models were from foreign manufacturers with Ford making the list twice and GM once.

On the other side of the spectrum from the fuel-efficient cash for clunker sales, we looked at pickup sales for August and found that the Ford F-Series outsold the Silverado with sales of 45,590 compared to 32,421 for the Silverado--an increase of 12.8 percent over August 2008. The Silverado was down almost 42 percent over last year. A new study by the Consumer Reports National Research Center has found that more consumers would consider buying a Ford more than a GM or Chrysler.

The huge spike in sales caused by cash for clunkers and year-end clearance sales may mean diminished dealer inventories for the best-selling models. If you didn’t take advantage of the clunkers program or didn’t qualify, it may make sense to wait a few months before purchasing a new car for dealerships to restock. Selection will increase, as may the incentives. The end of the year is another good time to buy as manufacturers are looking to achieve year-end quotas.

For more information on buying a new car, see our buying guide. Also, before you buy, check out our new car selector to find Ratings, reliability, fuel economy and more.

—Liza Barth