DALLAS -

Comerica Bank's Auto Affordability Index showed the purchase and financing of an average-priced new vehicle took a little less of median family income during the second quarter.

Analysts placed the Q2 level at 22.9 weeks, as Comerica indicated that consumers on average spent roughly the same amount on new models in the second quarter as they did in the first quarter.

"Auto affordability improved by 0.3 weeks of median family income, but that was not enough to boost auto sales in the second quarter of 2012," explained Robert Dye, chief economist at Comerica Bank in Dallas.

"Tepid job creation and slow-to-moderate income growth in the second quarter weighed on retail sales, even though interest rates remained near historic lows," Dye continued.

"Households may be feeling better about unleashing their pent-up demand for automobiles in the third quarter with August light vehicle sales rising to a 14.5 million unit annual rate," he went on to say.

Meanwhile, consumer sentiment appears to be improving this month, an unexpected development according to Bloomberg.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment climbed to 79.2 from the August reading of 74.3. The reading was projected to fall to 74, according to the median forecast of 71 economists surveyed by Bloomberg revealed in this report.

"Consumer sentiment has held up," Michelle Meyer, senior U.S. economist at Bank of America in New York, told Bloomberg before the index release last week. "Sentiment, in the historical sense, is depressed, but we have not seen a deterioration recently. That goes hand- in-hand with the labor market, which has been weak but has not collapsed."

And from another perspective connected to the auto industry, General Motors senior economist Sue Yingzi Su said during the OEM's Sept. 4 sales call, "The economy has been slowly and gradually improving. Although we would hope it could increase at a faster pace, we couldn't deny this increase. Stabilized consumer and business sentiment will be the major driver to help release the pent-up demand."