After months of fluctuating sales, the auto industry offered signs of recovery from its yearlong slump, as most automakers reported yesterday higher levels of U.S. sales in October. GM, the largest U.S. automaker, reported its first monthly sales gain in almost two years, while Hyundai and Subaru were huge winners thanks for their popular models and fuel-efficient sedans. Other top automakers—Toyota, Ford, Nissan—also posted higher sales.

GM reported its first monthly gain in U.S. sales in almost two years while Toyota and Ford also improved, a sign the auto industry it starting to crawl back from a yearlong slump.

Ford, the only Detroit automaker to dodge direct government aid and bankruptcy court, surprised investors with net income of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter and forecast a “solidly profitable” 2011.

DETROIT—Ford Motor Co. workers have overwhelmingly rejected contract changes that would have allowed the automaker to cut labor costs, a source said yesterday. The rejection leaves Ford at a disadvantage to its Detroit rivals as it continues its struggle to return to profitability. The United Auto Workers union had given local unions until tomorrow to complete voting. But a person briefed on the voting said yesterday that the contract changes have been rejected by large margins. The person asked not to be named because the UAW hasn’t announced the results yet.

Ford Motor Co. reached a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers union on contract changes, a major step in the automaker’s efforts to keep labor costs in line with crosstown rivals.

FRANKFURT Sales have plunged, General Motors Co. has emerged from bankruptcy and Chrysler has been taken over by Italy’s Fiat. The past year’s turbulence will be reflected this week in a smaller U.S. presence at the Frankfurt Auto Show—along with the new electric vehicles many hope will secure the auto industry’s post-recession comeback.

As you plot your future, consider Richmond a partner. Our city and region are perfect locations for pilot programs experimenting with alternative transportation solutions that pollute less. A special tip of the innovator’s hat to Ford and General Motors. Ford, we think your electric vehicle and Urban Mobility Network would find a nice home in Richmond. We know that you have visited here—thanks to your manager of sustainable business development, David Berdish, who graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University—and we are excited that Richmond could be a part of the company’s return to glory.

DEARBORN, Mich. Ford Motor Co. said yesterday that its future electric cars will “talk” to power grids across the country, part of an effort to drive interest in alternative energy vehicles. The nation’s second-largest automaker released details of a two-year collaboration with about a dozen utility companies as well as the U.S. Department of Energy on the design of a system that allows car owners to control when they charge vehicles and for how long.

After a lot of heartbreak, the nation’s automakers aren’t looking to commit. They’re taking small, tentative steps to raise production to meet the revived demand for new cars and trucks sparked by the Cash for Clunkers program. Carmakers are offering overtime or Saturday shifts at slack plants, but they aren’t willing to go as far as opening shuttered factories, concerned that demand may ebb when the program ends.

Helped by a lightened debt load, Ford Motor Co. posted a surprise second-quarter profit of $2.3 billion yesterday, following the worst loss in company history a year earlier.

After a yearlong free fall in the American car market, the decline of sales slowed in June, offering hope to automakers that the bottom has been reached and that shoppers may slowly start returning to showrooms soon. Still, sales were down 7.1 percent from May, which generally is a stronger sales month. Overall, automakers sold 859,847 vehicles in June, a 28 percent drop from the same month last year, according to Autodata Corp.

Billy McGuire and a couple of Richmond-area buddies plan to see America the old-fashioned way this summer: puttering along back roads in their Model T Fords. McGuire and the others, accompanied by their wives and their toolboxes, left yesterday from White Plains, N.Y., as part of an event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Ocean to Ocean Endurance Race that changed automotive history. They are scheduled to arrive in Seattle on July 12.

The 1913 Model T Ford in Dennis Fleming’s garage looks like it rolled right off its famed creator’s assembly line. Fleming’s collectible car sports the black metal chassis, wood-spoke wheels and hand-crank starter typical of Model Ts, which Ford sold to Americans at historically affordable rates from 1909 to 1927. “Every day, I do some work on it,“ Fleming said. “Mechanically, I maintain the car in tip-top shape.“

The House yesterday approved a “cash for clunkers” bill that aims to boost new auto sales by allowing consumers to turn in their gas-guzzling cars and trucks for vouchers worth up to $4,500 toward more fuel-efficient vehicles. President Barack Obama has encouraged Congress to approve consumer incentives for new-car purchases as part of the government’s work to restructure General Motors and Chrysler. The House approved the bill 298-119.