The numbers are in, and they’re full of surprises. Toyota’s recall fiasco hasn’t hurt sales – in fact, they’re up quite a bit over February. Many automakers’ numbers were up in March, due to heavy incentives and 0% financing. Ford fell to third place in March, lead by GM and Toyota. The interesting thing is that the top 3 automakers in March were almost double the number 4 player, Honda. Nissan, Chrysler and Hyundai followed, and then another significant drop before Volkswagen, which was less than half of Hyundai’s sales.
This leaves 3 distinct tiers of automakers for March. Incentives and special financing are supposed to continue for the month of April, so look for sales to continue to rise, as the three tiers reorganize a little bit. While BMW and Mercedes continue to sell few vehicles, the other luxury brands (and their parent companies) are doing rather well, owing to an economy which may have flattened out but still hasn’t seen a rise.
by John Suit