AUTO INDUSTRY : Car Sales Show Continued Rise in Late October : Autos: The Big Three are struggling to make enough minivans, sport utility vehicles and extended-cab pickups.

DETROIT — Sales of domestically built cars and light trucks rose 10.2% in late October, giving auto makers a strong month and a solid start on the new model year.

Low inventories of General Motors Corp. trucks and Chrysler Corp. cars probably cost each maker some sales, industry analysts said after the figures were released Wednesday.

For the entire month, sales of domestic and imported vehicles were up 9.2% from October, 1992. Analysts saw good news in the trend to gradual improvement.

“I’d rather see this than a big explosion in sales,” said Michael Ward of Kidder, Peabody & Co. “The best medicine for the industry right now is just to continue at this nice, moderate pace.”

Overall sales were running about 8% ahead of last year and heading for a total of about 14.1 million new cars and trucks.

“This is only half as vigorous as most previous (economic) recoveries, but the fact remains we are in a recovery,” said Dean Witter Reynolds analyst Ronald Glantz.

In the last 10 days of October, domestically built vehicles sold at an annualized rate of 12.1 million. With imports and heavy-duty trucks included, the annualized rate was about 14.7 million.

Each of the Big Three auto makers--GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co.--are struggling to make enough minivans, sport utility vehicles and extended-cab pickups, models that account for nearly four of every 10 sales.

GM recovered somewhat in October, after production glitches left it short of inventory. In August and September, GM’s market share was the smallest since the 1970s.

The No. 1 auto maker finished October with 34.4% of the new-vehicle market. Its market proportion over 10 months remained 33.3%, still well below its goal of holding on to the 34.3% share it had at the end of 1992.

But GM said it had its best start of a new model year since 1990 and the best monthly year-to-year increase since 1989.

GM’s late-October car sales rose 10.7%. Light trucks were up 19.8%, for an overall gain of 14%.

Ford reported a 5% improvement cars in late October and a 20.7% gain in light trucks, for a combined increase of 12.1%. Its market share 26.1%, up from 25.8% in September.

“Ford’s total truck volume last month was the highest ever for October,” said Robert Rewey, a Ford vice president.

Chrysler, which reports sales monthly, said car sales were up 12.7% in October, and light trucks were up 6.1%, for an 8.8% gain. Chrysler had 14% of the market, down from 14.3% in September.