Demand for new vehicles in the United States auto market cooled down a bit in March, with big trucks and luxury cars especially lukewarm. Still, new car sales did improve 0.7 percent year-over-year, and the auto industry is still expected to sell a total of 1,548,000 vehicles by the end of the year, according to a report from Reuters.
The above figure is slightly higher than the average forecast of analysts recently polled by the publication; prior to the release of March 2015’s stats, they forecasted an annualized figure slightly lower than March 2014’s annualized sales of 1,537,288. And not all automakers had a slow month in March, as Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, and Audi – all foreign brands – were among the top-performing brands last month.
Experts believe that the coming quarter will be more productive for the automotive industry, as consumer demand should rebound after the usual winter lull. Still, one major pain point in March’s sales figures was the fact that two of the “Big Three” American carmakers saw a decrease in sales last month.
General Motors’ total deliveries for March tallied at 249,875, a decrease of 2.4 percent year-over-year, though truck sales did improve 14 percent for GM over the same period. Ford, likewise, lost 3.4 percent from the previous March, selling a total of 235,929 in March. Sales of the Explorer (+17 percent) and Mustang (+36 percent) were strong points for the Blue Oval. Fiat Chrysler, on the other hand, improved 1.7 percent year-over-year to 197,261 vehicles, and the Jeep brand was especially strong in March, experiencing a 23 percent uptick from the previous March’s sales.