SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

Used-vehicle sales in April will likely improve month-over-month by more than a third, according to TrueCar.com, which is projecting about 3.36 million used units sold by month’s end.

The site indicated that this would be a 34-percent sequential hike and a 2-percent year-over-year gain, leading to a new-to-used ratio of about 1:3.

On the new side of the market, TrueCar expects new-vehicle sales to increase by more than 16 percent year-over-year.

With such an increase amid “buyer panic” this month, automaker’s sales figures have yet to feel the sting of the production clamps caused by the recent Japanese disasters. But that is likely to change next month, according to the site, which said the seasonally adjusted annualized rate would be lucky to hit 13 million units in May.

“We have not seen the outcome of the production issues effecting automakers as there was some buyer panic this month,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insights for TrueCar.com. "In May, we’ll see some actual shortages due to inventory which will affect sales in the coming months. The industry will struggle to reach a SAAR of 13 million during this period.”

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom in the new-car market analysis TrueCar released Wednesday.

For example, by the end of April — with overall industry sales likely hitting close to 1.15 million units — TrueCar anticipates Hyundai/Kia’s market share will reach an all-time high.

The Korean automaker is projected to sell 107,800 units for the month, up 45.6 percent year-over-year. That sum would put the automaker sixth in the rankings of the top seven OEMs and only about 6,500 units behind fifth-place Chrysler.

Hyundai was also the only one of the seven projected to show a sequential gain from March (up 1.6 percent on an unadjusted basis), as the overall industry is projected to fall 8.1 percent (unadjusted).

All seven OEMs are likely to show year-over-year improvement, with Nissan leading the way with a projected 52.4-percent hike to 97,162 units sold.

As far as market share, General Motors is expected to reclaim its No. 1 spot with 17.1 percent of the market, pushing Ford down to No. 2 at 16.4 percent. In March, the two were flip-flopped, as GM grabbed a 16.6 percent share and Ford came in at 17 percent.

Meanwhile, Toyota is projected to maintain its spot in third with a market share of 14 percent. Honda is forecasted to grab a 10.9-percent share, with Chrysler taking 10 percent of the market. Hyundai/Kia is projected to reach a 9.4-percent share, which would be its best-ever, and Nissan rounds out the list at 8.5 percent.

Moving along, TrueCar offered some data on incentive spending, which it believed will have hit a more-than-five-year trough during April.

Specifically, projections for April indicate that automakers will have spent an average of $2,386 per vehicle, down 4 percent month-over-month and 11.4 percent year-over-year.

Total incentive spending is likely to reach about $2.73 billion.

“With inventory dwindling, automakers didn’t have to spend as much money to move metal,” explained TrueCar automotive analyst Kristen Andersson. “Incentive spending was at its lowest since January 2006.”

TrueCar Reaches Landmark

In other news from the company, TrueCar boasted Wednesday that its online vehicle-buying program and Certified Dealer network have now saved consumers more than $1 billion of MSRP.

TrueCar reached this mark when a consumer bought a 2011 Toyota Avalon from Toyota of Fairfield, Calif.

The shopper belonged to one of TrueCar’s affinity auto buying programs and saved more than $4,200 off the MSRP of the Avalon, officials claimed.

This milestone comes on the heels of another recently celebrated by the company. TrueCar revealed recently that more than 270,000 vehicles have been sold via its auto-buying service.

This means TrueCar has experienced quadruple-digit growth since it started in 2006, officials highlighted.

“Surpassing a billion dollars saved by the buyers of automobiles stands as testimony to the power of providing consumers with radical clarity and transparency in terms of pricing,” stated Scott Painter, founder and chief executive officer of TrueCar.

“This is about much more than just reaching a goal. We believe it further confirms the arrival of the intelligent marketplace in the auto industry, one where haggle-free pricing and consumer empowerment become the foundation of how a car is sold,” he added.