Many consumers took advantage of cheap gas prices and strong economy last year as new data showed that car sales in U.S. jumped to a record in 2015, a clear indication that more Americans purchased cars that year than ever before.

About 17.5 million cars and trucks were sold last year in the U.S, overtaking the sales in 2000 which has 17.3 million, automakers said on Tuesday. Over all, car buyers spent about $570 billion for the new rides.

According to Autodata, the new record sales showed that it has increased about 6 percent from 2014 and just a small difference record in year 2000.

The record also showed that Dec has the stronger gain as it has likely up about 10 percent.

The new figure reported is a clear indication that the car industry has recovered after it faced difficulties in 2009 due to tight credit sent car sales and massive job losses that only produced 10.4 million sales. The difficulty even put General Motors (GM) and Chrysler Group into bankruptcy.

The auto sales' growth is expected to continue in 2016 with forecasts that sales this year might reach more than 18 million.

Mark Fields, CEO of Ford said that the strong sales will eventually  continue for a couple of years as many car owners are still looking for new vehicles to replace 10 years old vehicles or older.

"We think the next couple of years are going to continue to be very healthy ones for the auto industry," Fields said to CNN.

While other brands soaring high with their sales like Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had a 13 percent gain in Dec with Jeep sales skyrocketed to 42 percent and Ford had an 8.3 percent sales in Dec and the annual sale rose to 5.3 percent, Volkswagen AG has been recorded who has the worst performance in the industry after being hit by the controversial cheating emissions device scandal.

Volkswagen sales in U.S. had 5 percent for the year and 9 percent in Dec. But its luxury Audi brand had a slight gain in terms of companywide sales.