DETROIT — Talk of government loans and bankruptcy and a 37 percent drop in March sales isn't good news, but despite it all, there seems to be a little optimism returning to the U.S. auto industry.

Carmakers' March sales were dismal compared with last year, but consumers lured by record incentives pushed the February-to-March increase above the normal rise that comes at the end of winter.

"Maybe we'll get — imagine that — some momentum going," said Mike DiGiovanni, executive director of global market and industry analysis for General Motors Corp., whose 45 percent sales decline last month was the worst among the major automakers.

Americans bought 857,735 new vehicles in March, compared with 1.36 million in the same month a year ago, Autodata Corp. said yesterday. But sales jumped nearly 25 percent from February, beating the typical increase of about 20 percent and increasing optimism that the worst may be over for an industry battered by the global recession and bad publicity about GM and Chrysler's financial woes.

The carmakers are counting on more people like Richard Bolton, a Houston police officer who lives in suburban Livingston, Texas. Discounts amounting to $8,500 lured him into signing papers to buy a four-door Jeep Wrangler on Tuesday from River Oaks Chrysler-Jeep.

"I know they're not selling too many cars, and I've got a stable job," said the 26-year veteran patrol officer. He bought the Jeep, with a sticker price of $29,990, "probably to get more discounts and rebates and the employee price."

The average incentive on vehicles sold last month was $3,169, up 30 percent from a year earlier and a record high for the industry, according to the auto Web site http://www.Edmunds.com.

A good deal also reeled in Catherine Crawford of Newton, Mass., who yesterday bought her first car in about 12 years, a Toyota RAV4 small crossover vehicle.

Like many buyers, the researcher for a private federal contractor held off on her purchase for as long as she could.

"We are very careful with our money, and we've been saving for a while, so we sort of knew that we have to buy a car in the next couple of years," she said.

An added incentive was the new federal tax deduction for car sales and excise taxes, but price was the big factor — only $3,000 more for a new vehicle compared with a used one, she said.

On a conference call with reporters and industry analysts, GM's Digiovanni said most automakers finished March stronger than expected, and he believes the market is "bouncing around the bottom here."