US car sales accelerated in November to the best performance since the Cash for Clunkers incentive program jumpstarted depressed sales in August 2009, industry data showed Thursday.

Chrysler was the big winner after posting a 45 percent gain and Toyota was also a bright spot as it celebrated its first monthly sales gain since supplies were hit by the devastating March tsunami and earthquake in Japan.

Auto sales have been recovering slowly but steadily over the past couple years after collapsing in late 2008 to levels not seen since the recession of the early 1980s amidst the credit crunch and financial market meltdown.

They have picked up speed in the past few months thanks to an improving economic outlook and customers feeling the need to replace their aging vehicles after putting off a purchase in recent years.

"It's the underlying replacement demand and the economy as well as the great new products that are really driving it," GM vice president for US sales Don Johnson said in a conference call.

"We are seeing a broad spectrum of customers return to the market," he added.

"Given recent sales trends and consumer confidence numbers, we're feeling pretty good about where the industry is going."

Total industry sales rose 14 percent from November 2010 and were up 10 percent for the year to date, according to Autodata. The seasonally adjusted, annualized rate rose to 13.6 million units from 13.3 million in October, 13.1 million in September and 12.1 million in August.

Ford said the pace of industry sales in the past three months "suggests the current momentum is not an aberration."

"We believe replacement demand will continue to support stronger levels in 2012, and Ford is ready to meet that demand with high quality, fuel-efficient cars, utilities and trucks," said Ken Czubay, Ford's US sales chief.

But while sales are improving, they remain depressed and are not expected to recover to pre-crash levels for a while. Americans bought between 15 and 17.8 million vehicles a year from 1994 to 2007.

November marked Chrysler's 20th month of year-over-year sales gains, which it attributed to strong demand for its revamped vehicles.

"November was another huge month for the Chrysler Group and our highest year-over-year sales gain of 2011," Chrysler's US sales chief Reid Bigland said in a statement.

The 45 percent jump in November sales to 107,172 vehicles helped push year-to-date sales up 25 percent to 1.2 million vehicles, while Chrysler's market share jumped 2.1 points to 10.6 percent in November.

Toyota managed to bring its market share back up to nearly where it was before the tsunami disrupted supplies as sales rose seven percent to 137,960 vehicles in November.

But sales were down nearly eight percent for the year to date at 1.6 million vehicles and Toyota's market share for the period was down 2.5 points at 12.7 percent.

"We're very confident that not only our volume but our share will be recovering throughout 2012," said Bob Carter, general manager of Toyota Motor Sales USA.

A planned reduction in lower-margin fleet sales kept GM's sales gains in check in November, with sales up seven percent at 180,402 vehicles compared with November 2010, and up 14 percent at 2.3 million vehicles for the year to date.

Ford's sales rose 13 percent to 166,865 in November and were up 18 percent for the year to date at 1.9 million vehicles.

Honda, which has been hit by parts shortages due to flooding in Thailand, saw its sales drop 10 percent to 83,925 vehicles. Sales for the year also took a hit from shortages caused by the Japanese quake and tsunami. They were down six percent at one million vehicles.

"We're looking forward to closing the year on a strong note as production recovers and the all-new CR-V goes on sale this month," said John Mendel, American Honda's vice president of sales.

Nissan sales rose 19 percent in November to 85,182 vehicles, while sales for the first 11 months of the year were up 16 percent at 814,840.

Hyundai posted a 22 percent gain to 49,610 vehicles in November, while sales for the year to date were up 21 percent at 493,426.