Ford Reports A 2.6% Decline In March Sales --- Toyota, GM and Others Turn In Robust Results; Light Trucks Lead Pack
DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. posted a 2.6% decline in March sales from its strong year-earlier results, while Toyota Motor Corp. had its best March ever, with a 5% increase in U.S. light-vehicle sales.</br></br>Overall, March vehicle sales, buoyed by robust results from Toyota, General Motors Corp. and a host of smaller auto makers, surged to their highest seasonal level since last August. Some economists are predicting the sales numbers may be a factor in prompting the Federal Reserve to consider another interest-rate increase.</br></br>Sales of cars and light trucks in March totaled 1,388,790, 1.3% more than last March's strong sales and equivalent to a seasonally adjusted rate of more than 15.7 million vehicles a year, based on the Commerce Department's revised factors. The results were clearly driven by torrid sales of light trucks, particularly sport-utility vehicles. Truck sales in March hit an all-time high.</br></br>Led by Toyota, Japanese auto makers are mounting their most aggressive push in the U.S. market in years, helped by a weak yen and a number of new models. Toyota sold a whopping 100,000 of its redesigned Camry sedans in the first quarter, a company record for a three-month period. Its market share rose to 8.7% in the first quarter compared with 7.3% during the same period last year.</br></br>As a whole, Japanese auto makers saw their share of the U.S. light-vehicle market swell to 24.3% in the first quarter, up from 22.4% a year ago. At the same time, the Big Three U.S. auto makers lost market share, slipping to 71.7% from last year's 74.1%. European auto makers saw market-share gains.