The car industry is showing a robust recovery, according to the latest figures.

Car production rose by 44 per cent in April compared to this time last year and was up 65 per cent over the year-to-date.

Meanwhile commercial vehicle production was up by more than 40 per cent and engine production up 38 per cent.

But this figure must be balanced against last year which was when Honda was in its third and four month of non production at South Marston.

“Output in April is up across all sectors compared to the same time last year, reflecting a good start to the second quarter of 2010,” said Paul Everitt, the chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

“A number of UK product launches and the introduction of new technologies are helping to sustain demand despite an expected slowdown following the end of the scrappage scheme.

“The home market saw a significant increase in the month, a positive indication of a strengthening economy and an improvement in consumer confidence.”

Production at Honda in Swindon will top 140,000 vehicles in the current financial year compared to 210,000 when before the crunch credit.

Of those 140,000 about 40 per cent will be Honda’s supermini the Jazz which first rolled off the production line at South Marston last October.

Honda’s workforce is like other car workers are also in the middle of wage freeze.

Last year they had their pay docked five per cent with managers receiving a 10 per cent cutback. That cut was reinstated this year but the ‘associates’ cannot expect a pay rise until next year at the earliest.

A total of 3,200 Vauxhall workers are facing a two-year wage freeze as the company needs to find €265 million (£225 million) a year in savings from its workers.

Its parent company, the Opel/Vauxhall European division of General Motors, is close to a deal with unions and it is believed that British union representatives are close to agreeing a deal that will keep wages at the same level for the next two years.

Other workers in the Opel group are expected to have to accept pay cuts as well.

The pay freeze for workers assembling the Astra at Ellesmere Port on Merseyside and another 1,100 at Luton making Vauxhall, Renault and Nissan-badged vans is likely to be accepted with little dissent.

Union officials conceded that pay freezes were the acceptable cost of job security when GM appeared to be on the verge of selling its European operations to Magna, of Canada, last autumn.

News of the Vauxhall pay freeze comes as thousands of employees of Jaguar Land Rover await news of their future.

The Indian-owned carmaker is committed to closing its Castle Bromwich or Solihull plants in the Midlands to streamline production alongside its plant at Halewood.