Hawaii vehicle registrations were up 9.8 percent in the first quarter of the year, besting the 8.7 percent national figure.

The Hawaii Auto Outlook report, prepared for the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association, projects continued good news for the state’s new-vehicle dealers with a forecast of 45,750 sales for the year. That would be 7.6 percent ahead of the 42,506 last year, and above the 41,184 vehicles registered in 2008 when the bottom fell out of the economy.

The picture has brightened from a record annual low of 32,668 vehicle registrations in 2010.

"Looks like we’re coming up out of the valley," said Dave Rolf, executive director of the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association.

The report shows that the Toyota and Scion brands had the highest number of registrations in the quarter, 2,907 units, for a quarter-over-quarter increase of 8.7 percent. BMW saw the largest percentage increase for the quarter, at 58.5 percent.

The surge was due to "new model releases combined with an improving economy," said Dennis Short, general manager of BMW of Honolulu.

BMW recently released the new 3 Series to many accolades, he said. "It’s a very fuel-conscious car … that was probably the one that drove our increase."

The X1 sport utility vehicle also drove sales, and it helped that isle BMW dealerships also were able to acquire more X3s, "which have been hard to get."

Bavarian Motor Works, as BMW once was known, is building buzz within the automotive industry for models it has yet to release, including a 4 Series, a 3 Series sedan and station wagon, "a 5 Series with diesel," which is cleaner-burning than in past decades, and at the end of the year, an electric car, designated the i3.

Registrations of alternative powertrain, or hybrid and electric vehicles, was at 6 percent through March, about the same level as last year.

Light trucks, which often lead passenger vehicles, were just under half of the registrations, at 49.6 percent through March.

Japanese brands led the pack as usual, with 6,835 registrations through March, a 12.6 percent year-over-year increase for 62.3 percent market share, followed by the Detroit Three’s 19.8 percent market share, European brands’ 11.7 percent and Korean brands’ 6.2 percent, which showed the only decline at 11.6 percent.

Rolf noted that the projection for more than 45,000 sales still is short of the "normal" number of 50,000 new vehicle registrations a year, so "it’s not like we’re doing cartwheels down Kalakaua, but it is encouraging," he said.