Southland auto sales zoom after prolonged idling.

Sales of automobiles, particularly domestic ones, are accelerating in Southern California after idling for years in the recession.

Statewide, first-quarter sales surged 13.1 percent in comparison with a year earlier, said Bob Fitzharris, senior consultant with Agoura Hills-based J.D. Power & Associates, an automobile marketing and research firm.

In contrast, statewide auto sales fell 9 percent from 1990 to 1991, 2 percent from 1991 to 1992 and 0.8 percent from 1992 to 1993, according to the California Report on Automotive Marketing.

"Sales are great. We have more customers than we have cars," said Michael Koper, owner of Prince Chrysler Jeep in Inglewood.

"We're doing very, very, very good," echoed Dan Spencer, a salesman at Thorson GMC Truck-Buick in Pasadena.

"The recession is over for Southland car dealers," Fitzharris said. "The pent-up demand has finally caught up."

"Things have finally broken loose just a little bit," said David Breslow, president of Los Angeles-based Auto Purchase Consulting Inc., a car buying and leasing service.

"There is a lot of pent-up demand from people who weren't buying vehicles in the last four years," Breslow added.

The increase is especially dramatic for domestic cars. Sales of General Motors Corp. vehicles jumped 26.7 percent in Southern California from the beginning of the company's model year in September 1993 through last month, compared with the same period a year earlier, said General Motors spokesman Carl Sheffer.

Ford Motor Co. reported a 29 percent increase in Southern California car sales from January 1994 through April compared with a year before, and a 17 percent increase in truck sales, according to a written statement.

And sales of Crysler Corp. vehicles increased by 11 percent in Southern California during the first four months of 1994 in comparison with the same period in 1993, said Chrysler spokesman Michael Coates.

Sales of foreign automobiles aren't quite keeping up with domestic sales though. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. in Torrance reported a 4 percent decline in year-to-date sales in Southern California compared with the same period in 1993, said Toyota spokesman John Hanson.

Year-to-date sales for BMW of North America Inc. are flat in Southern California compared with a year ago, said BMW spokesman Tom McGurn.

Yet at L.A. County Mazda dealers, sales increased 7.1 percent from January through April 1994 compared with the same period a year ago, said Mazda Motor of America spokesman Bob Marsocci.

General Motors attributes its surge in sales to its new California Value Selling Initiative program, Sheffer said.

The auto maker has been losing market share in Southern California for the past 18 years. Company officials conducted research in the region and discovered Californians prefer to buy vehicles that have more standard features than do traditional General Motors cars, he said. These include power windows, cruise control and dual air bags.

Thus, General Motors made these and other features standard this model year on 46 models it sells in California, Sheffer said.

General Motors also made the sticker prices on these models closer than in the past to the actual prices the cars would probably sell for, Sheffer said.

This program "has been the crux of most of our success," Sheffer said.

Meanwhile, Chrysler is selling some hot products right now, including its Dodge Ram Pickup and Jeep Grand Cherokee, Coates said.

The Dodge Ram Pickup is a brand-new, state-of-the-art pickup truck model that rides like a car and is styled more like an 18-wheeler than a pickup truck, with a big standup grill and lower headlights in the front, Coates said.

Also, since the Jeep Grand Cherokee was introduced in 1993, "we literally have been playing catch-up the whole time to be sure we are building enough of them," Coates said. He added that the whole sport utility segment of the auto industry is booming.

Ford's hot sellers are its redesigned Mustang and Thunderbird, along with its just-introduced Windstar minivan, said Ford spokesman John Clinard.

Ford recently increased production of the Mustang at its assembly plant in Michigan to keep up with sales, he said.

Also, the Thunderbird has a new V-8 engine and a redesigned interior that has made it attractive to consumers, while the Windstar minivan, just introduced in April, is generating excitement and bringing customers into showrooms, Clinard added.

Looking at foreign cars, Marsocci said Mazda sold more Miatas during April nationwide than during any time since it was introduced, with the exception of its August 1989 debut month.

The surge in Mazda sales locally can also be attributed to the Southland economy "recovering considerably," Marsocci said.

BMW expects sales to surge when cars start rolling off its new South Carolina production line in 1996 and 1997. Until then, the company is focusing on improving customer satisfaction rather than increasing volume, McGurn said.

Toyota spokesman Hanson said a 4 percent decrease in the sale of Toyota's in Southern California is not a dramatic decrease, and could not point to a specific reason for the decline.