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Shoppers Spring Back to Car Dealerships in March


sales graph up

SANTA MONICA, CA--March 27, 2014: Edmunds.com forecasts that 1,476,535 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in March for an estimated Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of 15.8 million. The projected sales will be a 24.0 percent increase from February 2014, and a 1.7 percent increase from March 2013.

"Car buyers who chose not to brave the cold weather last month found plenty of opportunity this month," commented Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell. "Now that spring has arrived, weather conditions shouldn't have the impact on car shoppers it had at the beginning of 2014, and we'll be able to get a better sense of the true strength of the marketplace in coming months."

SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER







Sales Volume

Mar-14 Forecast

Mar-13

Feb-14

Change from Mar 2013*

Change from Feb 2014*

GM

247,101

245,950

222,104

0.5%

11.3%

Ford

239,423

235,643

183,349

1.6%

30.6%

Toyota

207,531

205,342

159,284

1.1%

30.3%

Chrysler Group

190,684

171,603

154,866

11.1%

23.1%

Nissan

139,798

137,726

115,360

1.5%

21.2%

Honda

122,893

136,038

100,405

-9.7%

22.4%

Hyundai/Kia

115,645

117,431

90,221

-1.5%

28.2%

VW/Audi

48,825

50,957

37,993

-4.2%

28.5%

Industry

1,476,535

1,452,269

1,191,087

1.7%

24.0%


*NOTE: March 2014 had 26 selling days, March 2013 had 27 and February 2014 had 24.

 

Edmunds.com estimates that retail SAAR will come in at 12.6 million vehicles in March, with fleet transactions accounting for 20.0 percent of total sales. An estimated 3.33 million used cars will be sold in March, for a SAAR of 33.9 million (compared to 3.06 million – or a SAAR of 33.8 million – used car sales in February).

MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER







Market Share

Mar-14 Forecast

Mar-13

Feb-14

Change from

March 2013

(Percentage pts.)

Change from February 2014

(Percentage pts.)

GM

16.7%

16.9%

18.6%

-0.2%

-1.9%

Ford

16.2%

16.2%

15.4%

0.0%

0.8%

Toyota

14.1%

14.1%

13.4%

-0.1%

0.7%

Chrysler Group

12.9%

11.8%

13.0%

1.1%

-0.1%

Nissan

9.5%

9.5%

9.7%

0.0%

-0.2%

Honda

8.3%

9.4%

8.4%

-1.0%

-0.1%

Hyundai/Kia

7.8%

8.1%

7.6%

-0.3%

0.3%

VW/Audi

3.3%

3.5%

3.2%

-0.2%

0.1%