Following similar trends as July and August, the Dataium Automotive Shopper Intensity Index rose significantly last month, moving higher by almost 8 percent.

The index climb, showing potential for an increase in retail sales in the next few weeks, bodes well for dealers and manufacturers — particularly Chrysler and Infiniti.

Conversion rates or leads per visitor were up nearly 10 percent from August, and these two nameplates posted the highest gains, according to the report.

In other good news for the industry, according to the index, this year is on track to post close to a 10 percent increase in sales over 2010.

On the other hand, while conversion rates were up, lead and visitor counts were both down this past month.

That said, the company predicted “solid gains” for OEMs over the next few months.

“We look for solid gains over the next few months as manufacturers continue with model year end clearance events and end of year buying by consumers,” officials noted.

Dataium offered the following chart to illustrate month over month change for automotive retail sales in units and dollars compared to the ASI index: