The head of Hyundai Motor’s US operations said the company’s sales to individual customers to 10 October have already outpaced its retail sales for all of 2010.

John Krafcik told the Wall Street Journal demand for Hyundai vehicles remainedstrong despite downbeat forecasts for US economic growth. US auto sales overall have improved from last year, and through the end of September were up more than 10% from the first nine months of 2010.

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“We’re 89 days ahead of schedule,” in beating last year’s retail sales, Krafcik said. Retail sales of Hyundai vehicles in the US are up about 33% to 450,050 vehicles, company officials said. Hyundai’s US sales overall for the first nine months of 2011, including sales to fleet customers, are up 20% to 492,914 vehicles, according to Autodata.

Part of the resilience in consumer demand for new vehicles reflects the age of vehicles on the road, Krafcik said. Consumers who kept old cars going during the worst of the recent recession now want to take advantage of strong used car prices and trade them in, he said.

“Consumers can get much more than they thought for their used cars,” Krafcik said.

In the first nine months of this year, Hyundai sold 492,914 cars and light trucks in the US. In all of 2010, it sold 538,228 vehicles. The company declined to give specific figures for retail sales.

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Hyundai has launched several new models with fresh designs that are selling well, he said, including a new Elantra compact that more than doubled retail sales during the first 10 days of October compared to a year ago, he said.

Krafcik was cautious about the longer term outlook for US vehicle sales. Without stronger growth in jobs and a recovery in the housing market, the momentum in the US auto market could sputter. Some industry analysts are cutting sales forecasts for 2012 and 2013.

“We need to see a recovery in housing and jobs,” Krafcik said.