Jeep's 29% sales increase in May led FCA to an 11% jump overall for the month.

Automakers are looking at a mixed bag of sales for May, but when the final tally is recorded, it’s expected to see the industry on the plus-side of the ledger. Early returns show that domestic makers fared well, while others are more spotty.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles posted a double-digit sales jump of 11% thanks to big surge in sales by the Jeep brands, where sales went up 29%.

Ford Motor Co. managed to eke out a 0.7 % sales increase during May. The increase included an 11% in sales of F-Series pickup trucks despite a crippling fire that forced the company to shut down production for more than a week.“F-Series didn’t miss a beat,” said Mark LaNeve, Ford vice president of sales, service and marketing, who noted during the first five months of 2018, the Ford pickup is off to its best start in sales since 2000.

(Hamburg, Germany becomes first city to ban older diesels. Click Here for the story.)

Ford F-150 sales continued to be strong in May helping the automaker to small sales increase for the month.

Nissan Group today announced total U.S. sales for May 2018 of 131,832 units, a decrease of 4% compared with the previous year. Nissan Division March sales were 120,207 units, down 4% year-over-year while the company’s luxury unit, Infiniti, saw sales fall 7%. Nissan electric vehicle sales increased by 11%.

Toyota sales were down 1.3% last month. The Toyota brand fell 1.5% and its Lexus luxury brand was down 0.1%. The company’s passenger cars slumped 11%, while sales of SUVs, crossovers and pickups increased 5.7%.

Unsurprisingly, Audi of America continues its roll of improved sales with a 0.6% increase in May 2018 versus 2017. The Q7 and A4 posted the biggest gains last months at 6% and 4% respectively. Overall, Audi sales are up 5.9% year-to-date.

(Click Here for more about the impact of SoftBank’s $2.25 billion investment in GM’s Cruise Automation.)

Volkswagen continued its renaissance in May with sales rising 4%. For the German automaker’s U.S. unit it was all about SUVs. The redesigned Tiguan led the way with sales of 8,579, accounting for more than 27% of VW sales.

Analysts and industry observers are predicting that U.S. new-vehicle sales rose in May as a result of a strong job market and growing housing sector, and perhaps more importantly is that buyers are unaffected by rising interest rates.

Edmunds.com analysts projected a May sales increase of 3.5% compared with a year earlier. Cox Automotive predicted a 3.1% increase. Barclays projected a 3.6% uptick.

(To see what plans CEO Sergio Marchionne revealed for Fiat Chrysler’s next five years, Click Here.)

Barclays analyst Brian Johnson wrote to clients that this year has been “much better than people anticipated” thus far.