10 Best Cars For Spring Sightseeing

DETROIT (MainStreet) -- This spring's mix of 70- and 80-degree days in places usually contending with snow and high gas prices for travelers considering warm-weather road trips have drivers stuck in a seasonal slow lane.

A different car could help ease that congestion.

J.D. Power and Associates and LMC Automotive are predicting total new vehicle sales for March will increase 7% from March 2011, to 1.08 million units. That would be the highest monthly volume in nearly two and a half years and would help increase total vehicle sales for the month to 1.37 million, or 6% more than last March.

This spring, however, not just any car will do. Through the first 18 days of March, compact and subcompact cars accounted for 23% of the vehicle market. That's the highest percentage since the "Cash For Clunkers" program began in 2009 and isn't entirely unexpected considering that the average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. hovers around $3.87, or 30 cents more than it was a year ago.