Nitric oxide reagent gas has been found to improve the sensitivity and robustness of the atmospheric pressure corona discharge ionization (APCDI) process. Sensitivity has been increased by a factor of 20-100, depending on the compound, over APCDI without nitric oxide. The robustness (defined as the sensitivity to matrix interferences) of APCDI in the presence of water has been improved by a factor of 3 over normal APCDI. These improvements are due in part to a modification of the commercial inlet system and ionization chamber that allows the chamber and sample gases to be heated to 100 and 350°C, respectively. Nitric oxide was chosen as the reagent gas because of the variety and selectivity of its interaction with hydrocarbons with differing functional groups. Product ions of nitric oxide ionization and their subsequent tandem mass spectra are presented and discussed for selected alkanes; alkenes, alkylbenzenes, alcohols; aldehydes, and an ether. A tandem mass spectrometry (unique parent ion-daughter ion transition) method was developed to quantify compounds of specific interest in vehicle emissions. The absolute sensitivity for these compounds, under ideal conditions, was determined and ranges from 0.006 ppb for xylene (most sensitive) to 80 ppb for C8 (or larger) normal alkanes. Routine sensitivity for real-world samples was in the single parts per billion range for aromatic and olefinic species. Potential applications include the real-time, on-line monitoring of selected hydrocarbons in automobile exhaust.