New vehicle sales have kept their brisk pace last month in the US, the second largest auto market in the world, with automakers posting robust year-over-year increases as the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales, or SAAR, approached the 18 million units threshold. General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, Nissan, Lexus, Audi, Subaru and Volkswagen were among the key makes that delivered positive results as the industry sales were in July again on pace to secure the best level in at least a decade.