March Car Sales Show Signs of Life
April 01, 2009

By Michelle Krebs and Bill Visnic

A late-month uptick caused March car and truck sales to surpass forecasters' expectations, providing a glimmer of hope to the U.S. auto industry that the long and ugly drought is nearing an end.

"We started to see some signs of life in the March numbers," said Jesse Toprak, executive director of Industry Analysis for Edmunds.com, parent of AutoObserver.com. His remark echoed similar comments made by auto company executives and analysts as they delivered their March sales results Wednesday.

Particularly encouraging to everyone was the rise in the annualized rate and the above-average hike in sales from February to March. 

Automakers sold 857,313 cars and trucks in the U.S. in March, a 37 percent drop from March 2007. Still, the Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate (SAAR) of sales for March marked its highest level this year at 9.8 million vehicles. January's SAAR was 9.5 million and February dipped to 9.1 million. Most forecasters had expected an under 9 million SAAR for March, based on early to mid-month sales activity.

Another sign of spring was the rise in sales between February and March. For the past five years, the increase in February to March sales has been 21 percent. This year, it was 23 percent.

Source: Edmunds.com

Postive Economic Signs

Encouraging economic indicators seem to be lifting spirits. Those signs include the stock market rebound, low gas prices and mortgage rates, an uptick in housing starts, a surprising lift in durable goods orders and a boost in retail sales.

GM's chief analyst Mike DiGiovanni even gave President Barack Obama some credit for the industry ending the month on a higher note. "His speech Monday, giving assurance that he's backing us, may have had a halo effect and given the whole industry a lift," DiGiovanni said. The president also announced Monday that the government would guarantee GM and Chrysler warranties and would seek tools to stimulate industry auto sales.

Whatever the reason, said Bob Carter, group vice president and general manager of the Toyota Division, "We're seeing some optimism returning to the market." 

Still, as Jim O'Donnell, BMW North America president said, "We're seeing more good signs than bad...but we're not celebrating."

Industry sales still sunk 37 percent below last March and all of the Big Six automakers -- Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Nissan and Toyota reported sales down by 35 to 45 percent each. Many other manufacturers reported sales declines of similar sizes.

Further, automakers are paying dearly to move the metal, with incentives setting an all-time record in March, according to Edmunds.com's estimates.

And a major storm cloud, the continual rise in the ranks of the unemployed, remains very much on the horizon. On Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department reported the number of Americans filing unemployment claims unexpectedly rose last week to the highest level since 1982 and those staying on benefit rolls jumped to a record as companies kept cutting jobs to trim costs. The number of newly unemployed -- 669,000  -- marked the ninth straight week of 600,000 plus. 

Edmunds.com's Toprak warned that only after a few months of steady improvement in sales will the industry be able to look in the rearview mirror and declare the bottom has come and gone.

The Big Seven Shares

Chrysler, Ford and GM combined took 45.2 percent market share in March.

Here are the market share breakdowns of the top seven automakers in terms of volume: GM, 18.1 percent; Toyota, 15.5 percent; Ford, 15.3 percent; Chrysler, 11.8 percent; Honda, 10.3 percent; Nissan, 7.8 percent; and Hyundai (with Kia), 7.6 percent.

GM: Best Monthly Close Since September 2008

General Motors sold 156,380 vehicles in March, down 45 percent compared with a year ago. That put its market share at 18.1 percent for the month, according to Edmunds.com's calculations.

An encouraging sign for GM is the fact that its increase in sales from February to March was above the typical industry average at 23 percent, a bigger increase than Toyota experienced though not as large as Ford's hike.

GM's DiGiovanni and Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president in charge of sales, service and marketing, said the month for GM as well as the industry came in far better than what they had predicted at the beginning or middle of the month. "We had a strong close at GM," said LaNeve. "We had our best final day of the month since September."

Some of GM's late-month uptick came from the fact that the automaker spent big on incentives. Edmunds.com estimates GM spent an average of $4,836 per vehicle on incentives, which included its March Clean Sweep Dealer Cash program.

GM, which has 60 days to deliver a new viability plan to the U.S. Treasury Department to obtain more federal funds, still faces challenges in the marketplace. The Chevrolet Malibu was the only GM vehicle to post a sales increase on a year-to-year comparison; its sales were up about 2 percent. Nevertheless, Chevrolet sales rose 25 percent from February to March, with cars, trucks and crossovers showing increases.

Cadillac is spending more than any maker on incentives -- a hefty $6,839 per vehicle -- but sales remain off from a year ago and increased only about half of the industry February-to-March average. Cadillac is hurt by the fact that even luxury buyers are now being pinched by the ailing economy. Adding to its woes, Cadillac is largely frozen out of leasing, a popular financing mechanism with luxury buyers, because of GMAC's withdrawal from the leasing business.

Hummer, which will be sold or eliminated in the coming weeks, suffers from the SUV slump but also due to its uncertaint future. As a result, GM sold a scant 831 Hummers in March.

With the addition of a whole new package of incentives that includes payment protection in case a buyer loses employment and trade-in coverage being marketed as GM Total Confidence, GM expects a bright April. 

Ford: Boasts Retail Gains

It's hard to disguise a sales slide of nearly 41 percent, but Ford Motor Co. officials did their best in proclaiming March something of a victory, based on growth of retail share and a shift of the sales mix away from trucks and traditional SUVs and toward passenger cars.

And, like many manufacturers, Ford's March performance was an improvement over February's bleak numbers; in Ford's case, March sales were up 34 percent compared with the prior month, according to Edmunds.com's calculations. Ford's market share came in at 15.3 percent.

Ford also continues to pound the drum of retail performance, saying the end of March marked the second consecutive quarter in which Ford gained retail market share. Like its Detroit-based rivals, Ford has drastically curtailed fleet deliveries and the company claimed March was its best retail-sales month since December 2006.

But the breakdown of the company's 40.9 percent overall sales decline is not kind: Ford's cars slid 38.8 percent, inclusive of a scary 63.5 percent plunge for Mustang and a 41.5 percent drop for Focus. The Fusion lineup gave up 19.9 percent despite the recent addition of the high-mileage hybrid version, but Ford chief sales analyst George Pipas qualified Fusion's performance by saying retail sales gained by 9 percent.

As has become common, Ford's trucks and SUVs endured a beating. Sales for the Explorer were down 69.8 percent, indicating Ford desperately needs some kind of replacement, and soon -- and despite its gargantuan proportions, Expedition is becoming almost invisible on the sales charts, dropping 77.8 percent in March to a meager 1,548 units sold.

The most pain for Ford comes from the geared-down performance of the F-Series, however. The all-new 2009 model was down 39.9 percent in March -- and sales for the year have plunged nearly 45 percent. Pipas claimed the F-150's performance has been acceptable in a relative sense because the full-size pickup segment has been decimated. He also claims the redesigned model has gained retail market share every month since its introduction.

Ford continues to deliberately dampen F-Series production, however, in an effort to align with the segment's depressed demand. Pipas said the strategy will continue, underscoring "our dedication to go one day at a time with this great product."

One surprise was a mini-resurgence at Ford's Volvo Cars premium-car unit, where data from Edmunds.com indicates March was Volvo's best month since last June and its performance in February and March led all Ford brands. Volvo's sales increased 89.5 percent over last month, its C70, V70 and C30 were the only vehicles in the entire Ford empire to post sales increases in March and the all-new XC60 crossover contributed 641 sales. But Volvo's bottom line still was down 31.4 percent in March and the brand dropped 49.1 percent year to date.

Ford's Lincoln unit was down 33 percent in March and the Mercury unit slid 42 percent. Both brands are down similar percentages for the first quarter.

Chrysler: Hanging In

Chrysler LLC stayed in the industry's sales-loss bandwidth by dropping 39 percent compared with last March, and also matched many rivals' results that markedly improved over February's weak sales -- 21 percent by Edmunds.com's calculations.

Many automakers did not have a single model that posted a sales increase in March, so Chrysler executives pointed to notable gains for two models in its lineup: Jeep Wrangler (16 percent) and Dodge Journey (127 percent). March also was the first month since last September that Chrysler's total sales topped six figures, coming in at 101,001.

Chrysler Executive Vice President of Sales Steven Landry said the company is following its Detroit competition in greatly reducing little- or no-profit fleet sales. Landry said fleet sales were down 44 percent in March and were cut 65 percent for the first quarter. He also said March was the second consecutive month that Chrysler has "maintained double digits of retail [market] share."

Along with the bright spots were unmistakable clouds on the Chrysler sales records, however. The Chrysler Town & Country minivan slid 39 percent and the Dodge Caravan was off a more reasonable 19 percent, though Caravan is down 29 percent for the year.

Chrysler's cars remained weak: the midsize Sebring plunged 78 percent to just 2,245 units sold (Honda's rival Accord dropped 34.7 percent -- and still outsold Sebring by a factor of 10, at 22,722 units). Chrysler's 300 large sedan continues its ongoing slide, giving up 41 percent in March and 61 percent year-to-date and the Dodge Avenger dropped 54 percent to 4,451 units.

At the Jeep division, the Wrangler's sweet gain was offset by a 44 percent plunge for the Grand Cherokee and startling 71 percent and 72 percent losses for the compact Compass and Patriot models.

Chrysler's all-new Ram pickup managed a comparatively healthy drop of just 27 percent, buoyed no doubt by heavy incentives that included the spiff of a no-cost Hemi V8. Executives said the no-cost Hemi is the one Chrysler incentive that does not carry over into April -- but the company is extending the Employee Plus Plus incentive until April 30.

Toyota: No Model Gains in March

Toyota Motor Sales USA sales slid 36.6 percent in March, the worst performance of the major Japan Three automakers, but still slightly outpacing the performance of any of the Detroit automakers -- despite the fact no model from Toyota or its upscale Lexus division posted a sales increase for the month. Toyota sold 132,802 vehicles in March.

It was not a good month for Toyota's small and fuel-efficient cars. The Yaris subcompact dropped 52.7 percent compared with March 2008 (Yaris was the Toyota passenger car to post the largest decline) and the Scion brand was hammered, as well: the xD declined by 57.6 percent, the xB by 52 percent and the tC two-door by a whopping 60.6 percent.

The Prius hybrid-electric plunged 55 percent as the company prepares to roll out a redesigned 2010 Prius in late May. The seminal Camry was off 33.8 percent and is down 36.4 percent for the year.

The truck side of the business declined by 38.3 percent, exceeding the total Toyota passenger-car slide of 35.4 percent. The truck decline was led by a 66.2-percent plunge for the 4Runner that was closely followed by a 65.7 percent drop for the once-hot FJ Cruiser, which amounted to unit sales of just 1,083.

Toyota's pickups fared no better in March, with the Tundra dropping a significant 59.7 percent. More troubling for Toyota planners and dealers: Tundra's first-quarter unit sales of 18,349 (-54.4 percent) were handily surpassed the midsize Tacoma's 24,937. Rival Ford Motor Co.'s F-Series line, with 32,728 sold in March, nearly doubled Tundra's quarterly sales total.

The Lexus premium unit trailed the mainstream Toyota brand, dropping 40.6 percent; Lexus moved just 14,239 units in March compared to 24,939 during the same month last year.

Lexus' RX crossover, which was redesigned for 2010, posted a comparatively strong decline of just 17.7 percent, but that performance was hampered by a heavy declines for Lexus' SUVs and some equally depressed performances from Lexus passenger cars, including a 58.2 percent slide for the LS flagship, to well less than 1,000 units (852) and respective 44.3 and 47.3 percent losses for the Lexus ES and IS sedans. The GS midsize sedan declined 61 percent to just 625 units.

Lexus' March performance nonetheless was a 43 percent improvement over the brand's dim February sales totals, said Toyota sales boss Bob Carter.

Honda: Cars, Trucks Lag Equally

It's now expected that truck sales will pull down just about every automaker's current sales figures. But for American Honda Motor Co. Inc., one expects its strong car lineup to take up the slack.

Not so, as the dismal market is having its way even with Honda's bread-and-butter Accord and Civic. The recently redesigned Accord -- for better or worse now classified a large car -- slid 34.7 percent compared with last March, although many other manufacturers would have eagerly accepted the 22,722 sales attributed to the Accord.

And the usually steady Civic dropped an almost identical 34.4 percent, at 20,645 coming within 2,000 units of Accord's total. Even the popular subcompact Fit declined by 19.4 percent.

The gaudy numbers are on Honda's truck side, where the Ridgeline midsize pickup plunged 66.1 percent to a mere 1,212 units in March -- and just 3,519 units for the entire first quarter. And the long-toothed Element was worse, off 70.4 percent in March and moving just 912 units.

For the high-performance but slow-selling Acura unit, March was more of what 2009 already has dished out -- negative numbers, although in percentage terms, Acura outperformed the mainstream Honda lineup.

In March, Acura's total decline outperformed the broad industry and its parent unit, dropping just 29.5 percent. Although the flagship RL continued its laggardly ways, sliding 69.4 percent to 161 units, it was the crossover duo of the MDX and RDX that proved to be the real drag: a 47.9 percent drop for the MDX and a 50.5 percent plunge for the RDX.

The RL, MDX and RDX all are off at least 50 percent for the first quarter, as well. Acura's sole bright spot is the TSX entry sedan, up 16.6 percent for the month and 10.6 percent year-to-date. 

Nissan: In Line With Industry Slide

Nissan North America Inc. endured a March that saw just 66,634 units go out the door, a 37.7 percent drop from March 2008's 106,921 units sold. Like many other full-line automakers, though, Nissan did improve markedly over February's sales, increasing by 22.8 percent.

Just two Nissan models posted sales gains compared with last March: the redesigned 370Z sport coupe (up 24.8 percent on 1,632 units) and the Rogue compact crossover, whose 6,982 sales represented a 1.6 percent gain.

Nissan, however, has consistency: in the passenger-car side of the showroom, there are none of the grotesque numbers seen on some automakers' sales charts. Its worst-performing car was, uncharacteristically, the Altima midsizer, which slid 37.8 percent. Nissan's best-performing car was the compact Versa, dropping just 17.8 percent.

Nissan's truck business is a wreck, however. The Titan full-size pickup plunged 58.2 percent in March, selling a meager 1,616 units -- and the Titan's first-quarter total of 4,582 sales puts it on pace to move slightly more than 18,000 Titans this year. Ford Motor Co. sold more than 32,000 of its F-Series pickups last month; Dodge moved 19,328 Ram pickups in the same 30 days.

The Armada SUV (based on the Titan) was sailing against industry trends for a period, but the floor dropped out in February and continued to be missing in March, as Armada plunged 66 percent. Nissan's Frontier midsize pickup was off 62.8 percent, but its 1,785 units surpassed Titan.

Worse still, the company's perpetually strong Murano crossover continued to run afoul of the industry's headwinds, retreating a significant 40.1 percent -- and first-quarter sales are off a similar 40.4 percent. In all, Nissan's trucks declined by 40.2 percent in March.

At the Infiniti premium division, hearty incentives helped pull the FX lineup to just a 6.3 percent decline, but there were numerous models that endured heavy losses, the most debilitating being the 52.1 percent drop for the best-selling G37 sedan and a 54.3 percent decrease for its coupe counterpart.

Other big losers at Infiniti include the 49.5 percent plunge for the M sedan (to just 886 units) and a 37.6 percent decline for the EX crossover. In all, Infiniti dove 47.6 percent in March and is down 36.3 percent for the first quarter.

Subaru: Forester Sets Another Sales Record

Subaru of America sold 16,249 vehicles, down 3 percent from the 16,685 sold a year ago. Still, for the year to date, Subaru bucked the industry trend and reported higher sales. For the first quarter, Subaru sold 41,532 vehicles, up 2 percent from the 40,881 vehicles sold a year ago.

Once again, the Forester, which nabbed even more awards in March, led the charge with its best monthly sales ever of 6,802 sold, up 47 percent from March a year ago; sales are up 80 percent to 17,942 for the quarter.

"The Forester has been a major driver of our success this year, leading the brand to a 2 percent year-to-date sales increase over 2008," Tim Colbeck, senior vice president of sales, Subaru of America, Inc. "As our market share grows to record levels this reinforces that the safety, durability and value of Subaru products continue to resonate with consumers."

Still, Subaru executives must be concerned that they have all of their sales in the Forester basket. The Forester was in March and for the quarter the only Subaru to have an increase in sales. The rest of Subaru's models saw double-digit decreases.

Subaru launches a revamped version of the Legacy this fall; the official unveiling of the production car occurs next week at the New York auto show.

Mitsubishi: Another Dramatic Decline

Mitsubishi Motors North America reported March sales came in at 4,620 vehicles, a higher-than-industry-average decline of 57 percent from last March's 10,750 vehicles. Its sales hike from February to March was far below the industry average at a mere 3 percent.

"This challenging economy presents us with opportunities to analyze and reconsider how we address the needs of our unique customer base," said MMNA President and CEO Shin Kurihara. "We expect the exciting future products we reveal next week at the New York auto show will be seen as a vital first step toward solidifying a stronger brand direction in this trying market."

Mitsubishi announced the elimination of 140 jobs, mostly at its California headquarters last Friday, and recently said it was closing its U.S. design center.

Hyundai: Outperforming the Industry

Hyundai sold 40,721 vehicles in March, down 5 percent from a year ago but up 33 percent from February.

Sales of the Accent, Sonata and Tiburon were up. The new Genesis kicked in 1,626 incremental sales. Sales of the Elantra, Santa Fe, Tucson, Entourage and Veracruz were down. The Azera, Hyundai's flagship before the arrival of the Genesis, showed a precipitous drop, to 387 vehicles sold from last year's nearly 3,000.

"We are satisfied with our overall performance in this difficult business climate," said Dave Zuchowski, Hyundai Motor America vice president of national sales. "The fact that we experienced only a nominal decline from an all-time March sales record in 2008 is acceptable to us."

For the quarter, Hyundai also is slightly ahead of last year for the first quarter, in an industry that is not. "As we enter the important spring selling season, we fully expect to build on our 1 percent year-over-year sales increase for the first quarter of 2009," Zuchowski said. Hyundai will get a boost from the introduction of the Genesis Coupe and the Elantra Touring. Plus the Korean automaker will continue to ride the wave of the Genesis being named the 2009 North American Car of the Year by independent journalists and its now-copied Hyundai Assurance payment protection program.

Kia: Bucking the Trend

Kia sold 24,724 units, up 1 percent from a year ago and up 12 percent from February. So far this year, Kia has sold 68,893 vehicles, up 1 percent from the 2008 first quarter.
 
The Kia Sorento SUV and Sedona minivan led March sales, posting 58 percent and 62 percent increases respectively. The new Kia Soul, which went on sale in February, kicked in 1,246 sales. All other models but Amanti showed sales declines.

"Sales of the Kia Sorento and Sedona are strong and we can attribute that to the right marketing strategy and our strong value proposition," said Michael Sprague, vice president of marketing. "We also are pleased to have the Soul post impressive results right out of the gate with its recent launch in the U.S market; we feel we have the right vehicles for the time."

Kia adds yet another model to its line this summer with the Forte sedan.

Audi: Q5 Soars to Bestseller

Audi sold 6,433 vehicles in March, down 19.4 percent from a year ago. Audi performed better than the industry in general on the strength of the Q5 and A5.

In its first full month on the market, the Q5 recorded sales of 1,094 units, making the Q5 the highest-selling Audi vehicle in March after the A4. Sales of the Audi A5 and R8 continued to be strong, with the A5 posting a 41.6 percent.

"With the new success of the Q5 and the continued success of the A5, Audi has maintained its momentum and its share of the luxury car market," said Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen. "While the economic conditions remain challenging, Audi dealers surpassed our projections for the month." 

BMW: Mini Sales Drop, Too

The BMW Group reported March sales of 21,125 BMW and Mini vehicles, a decrease of 22.9 percent from the 27,404 vehicles sold in March 2008. Sales of BMW brand vehicles decreased 24.2 percent in March for a total of 17,520 vehicles compared to 23,115 vehicles reported in the same month a year ago.

"In March, we saw a mixed cocktail of good, bad and ugly signals in the market and for us. I'm happy to say we're starting to see a bit more of the good," said Jim O'Donnell, president of BMW of North America, LLC. "Our sales were stronger than expected back at the beginning of the month and a bit of spring lift puts us in the premium market lead in March and the first quarter as well.

"No celebrating, however," O'Donnell added, "because further loosening of the credit reins is needed to see even more buying action."

He noted BMW has some important new models arriving in showrooms soon. The fifth-generation BMW 7 Series just went on sale in March. The new BMW Z4 arrives in May.
Mini sales, which had been holding up through this recession, dropped 15.9 percent to 3,605 units in March, from the 4,289 cars sold in March 2008. 

"We're seeing March bring some life to our segment," said Jim McDowell, vice president of Mini USA. "Mini sales are still tracking below last year but the gap has remained stable throughout the first quarter, and more people are configuring cars on the Internet -- all signs of cautious optimism that the traditional spring lift will happen again this year."

The new Mini Cooper and Cooper S convertible just arrived in showrooms in March. The Mini John Cooper Works Convertible comes this month.

For the year to date, the BMW Group sold 51,244 vehicles, down 25.2 percent, compared to 68,529 vehicles sold in the same period a year ago. BMW sales were down 26.8 percent to 42,731 vehicles, compared to 58,365 vehicles sold in the same period of 2008. BMW's SUV sales dropped more than did BMW car sales for the quarter and in March, as has been the trend for recent months. Mini's quarterly sales totaled 8,513 automobiles, a decrease of 16.2 percent compared with the 10,164 cars reported in March 2008.

Daimler: Mercedes Sales Fall

Daimler reported it sold 17,348 Mercedes-Benz and smart vehicles in March, a drop of 23 percent from last March.

The decline came entirely from the Mercedes brand, which had sales of 15,602, down 25 percent from 20,808 a year ago. Sales of the Smart car, which only went on sale in January 2008, increased 1 percent to 1,746 vehicles.

Volume leaders for Mercedes were the C-Class (5,008 sales), E-Class (1,978 sales) and GLK (2,598 sales).

For the year to date, Daimler has sold 45,171 vehicles, down 26 percent from 61,123 vehicles sold in the first quarter of a year ago. Of those, Mercedes' sales totaled 40,234 vehicles, down 30 percent 57,647 vehicles. Sales of Smart cars rose 42 percent to 4,937 from 3,476.

Oddly, Daimler said it will be a few days before a model-by-model breakdown of sales will be released.

Volkswagen: New Models Prevent Overall Nosedive

Volkswagen saw sales drop 19.7 percent in March to 15,720 vehicles compared with a year ago.

Every model in Volkswagen's portfolio was down hefty double digits, generally ranging from about 60 percent to 70 percent drops. Passat sales fell 71.6 percent. New Beetle sales were off 60.7 percent. Total Rabbit sales were roughly half of a year ago. The smallest decrease was of Jetta sales, which were down only 14.4 percent, due to the popularity of the recently introduced diesel-powered Jetta.

Another newly introduced model, the CC, had its best month since going on sale, with 2,351 sold during the month. The new Tiguan chipped in with 1,235 sales. The Routan minivan, made by Chrysler, added another 1,029 in incremental sales.

"Volkswagen is encouraged by how well our new products sold in March," said Mark Barnes, Volkswagen of America's chief operating officer. "Our stylish CC posted its best sales month ever for the third month in a row, and our seven passenger minivan, Routan, doubled its sales over last month. Our 50-state compliant clean diesel Jetta and Jetta SportWagen continue to sell well."

Barnes noted more new models are on the way starting with the diesel-powered Touareg SUV and the new Golf, available with a diesel engine, later this year.

Porsche: Socked by Retreat From Sports Cars

Sales at Porsche Cars North America Inc. dove again in March as the geared-down U.S. economy struck the sports-carmaker with a 29 percent loss compared with March 2008.

Porsche's signature 911 line fell by 25 percent and the Cayenne crossover model line dropped by 21 percent overall, although certain models in both lineups gained compared with last year.

Porsche's worst results came from the "entry" Boxster/Cayman lineup, which dropped 52 percent overall.

Porsche's sales for the first three months were off 27 percent compared with last year, although the company noted March sales improved 15 percent compared with February.

Tata Motors: Jaguar, Land Rover Increase Sales From February

India's Tata Motors reported that its Jaguar and Land Rover brands, purchased last year from Ford, had sales of 3, 422 vehicles in March, a decrease of 29 percent from a year ago but a 13 percent rise from February.

Separately, Jaguar sales dropped 33 percent from a year ago and increased 23 percent from February. The Jaguar XF continued as the brand's U.S. volume leader and had its best month for sales since August 2008. The Jaguar XK Coupe and Convertible had a sales increase of 29 percent in March compared with a year ago.

Land Rover sales decreased 26 percent from March 2008, but increased 30 percent from February. The automaker said it expects, when final industry sales are tallied, that Land Rover gained market share on the strength of the Range Rover Sport and LR2, which had its best sales month since March 2008.

For the year to date, the two brands combined had 30 percent lower sales than the first quarter a year ago, which was in a much better economic shape. Jaguar sales for the quarter were down 21 percent from a year ago; Land Rover sales were off 33 percent from a year ago.

"Given the challenges in the U.S. luxury marketplace today, we are pleased with our March and first-quarter performance for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands in the United States," said Jaguar-Land Rover North America President Gary Temple. "On the Jaguar side, customers continue to respond to our high quality and are embracing the new XF sedan. On the Land Rover side, we are gaining market share in the very competitive SUV marketplace."

Temple noted that both brands will be introducing new 2010 models in the coming months.

Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds.com director of pricing and industry analysis, provided the sales analysis for this report.

Big Six Sales Graphic by Robert Holland

Photos by Manufacturers

1 - Chevrolet Malibu

2 - Ford Mustang

3 - Jeep Wrangler

4 - Toyota Yaris

5 - Honda Ridgeline

6 - Nissan 370Z

7 - Audi Q5

8 - Subaru Forester

9 - Hyundai Genesis

10 - Kia Soul

11 - BMW 7 Series

12 - Mercedes-Benz C-Class

13 - Volkswagen CC

14 - Jaguar XF

Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:22 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine

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