(May 15, 2013) SANTA MONICA, Calif. — TrueCar has announced that fuel economy numbers from April light vehicle auto sales indicate TrueMPG have steadied at 23.7 mpg, remaining at record levels although ending a three-month rise in industry fuel economy. Year-over-year, average fuel economy saw a 0.4 mpg increase.

"Relatively high gas prices continued to push consumers towards fuel-efficient vehicles in April, resulting in another month of record-high TrueMPG numbers," said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst for TrueCar.  "While small cars and SUVs kept their sales momentum, the higher fuel efficiency of new larger vehicles –including large trucks- contributed to a 0.4 MPG improvement since last year at this time.

The 0.4 MPG improvement may not sound significant, but it actually translates into a savings of nearly 170 million gallons of fuel just this year."

Below is how the top eight manufacturers fared comparing overall MPG, broken out by car and truck MPG:

 According to TrueCar.com, the TrueMPG for vehicles sold by U.S. manufacturers averaged 21.9 MPG in April 2013, up from 21.3 MPG in April 2012. European manufacturers increased their average fuel economy for vehicles sold from 23.2 MPG to 23.3 MPG; Japanese manufacturers increased their average fuel economy from 25.0 MPG last year to 25.4 MPG; and South Korean manufacturers' average fuel economy increased from 26.9 MPG in April 2012 to 27.3 last month.

Below is a snapshot of a few vehicle segments and how they compare from April 2013 versus April 2012: