According to Edmunds.com, August auto sales could help lift this year’s sales totals to the highest levels since 2006. Edmunds is maintaining its forecast of 16.4 million vehicles sold in 2014, but the surprising seasonally adjusted annual selling rate (SAAR) of 17.5 million vehicles in August could bump the end-of-year number higher. The September sales rate is expected to fall slightly because some purchases that would have happened in September, were made at the end of August. U.S. light-vehicle sales totaled 16.6 million in 2006, the last full year before the recession, dropping to 10.4 million in 2009. Sales have risen by at least one million units annually through last year, when 15.6 million were sold. Lease expirations will bring a larger number of consumers to the market in 2015, which should push sales above 17 million.