March Auto Sales The Best In Nine Months

Led by the economic recovery and strong buyer incentive programs, March auto sales in the U.S. posted a 24% increase, the strongest showing in nine months. In previous months, the controversial Cash For Clunkers program gave the auto industry a temporary boost.

For Ford, the March sales news has been especially good, and their stock values have now soared to 700% of it's value during the worst of the recession. Ford also now has the largest market share of any manufacturer at 19.2%, followed by the streamlined GM at 17.8%, and Toyota at 15.5%. Since March of 2009, Ford has managed to increase it's market share from 14.6% to the industry leading 19.2%. And the new smaller GM now sells more cars in China than in the U.S. Buick models are especially popular among the Chinese middle class as well as business executives. In the U.S., Buick also was the shining star for GM, posting the best market gains of any GM products.

But, the news wasn't so good for Chrysler, which witnessed a continued sales drop of 8.3%. Even with the help of Fiat, Chrysler products are suffering. Dodge division did the worst, with only the Challenger sports car model selling well. The Chrysler and Jeep division models posted only single digit sales gains, but the Dodge division sales drop offset all of that.

Toyota did reasonably well in sales this month, mainly due to incentive programs and a advertising blitz designed to reassure buyers that most Toyota products are safe. But some brands such as Volvo witnessed a terrible sales month in March. Saab suffered a 90% sales drop in March, selling only 133 cars., although officially GM notes Saab sales at zero. And the Smart brand fell by 67% percent down to a mere 677 units. Volvo is now owned by the Chinese brand Geely.

Volkswagen posted an impressive 36% sales increase in March, with some models posting 279% increases. Subaru was also a big gainer as well.

In the modern "pony car" muscle wars, the Camaro outsells the Mustang by 8,904 to 5,829 units, with the Challenger bringing up the rear at 3,211, proving that not everyone likes to save at the gas pump.