Industry press reports indicate that easier credit boosted auto sales to their fastest pace (save the Cash For Clunkers bump) since August 2008, just before the nation’s economic downturn. In addition to easier access to credit, dealers say manufacturers offered inventive incentives that met changing consumer demand: less cash on the hood, richer leasing and financing deals, and more lease pull-ahead deals. Automakers say dealers have sharpened use of new technology for customer relations replacing or supplementing mailings with quick-response media, such as texting, e-mails, Facebook and Twitter.