SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - A thaw in the weather has led more buyers to showrooms, which allowed General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Nissan and Chrysler to top analysts’ estimates for March sales.
Automakers on Tuesday forecast a sales pace of 16 million to 16.5 million, including medium-duty and heavy trucks, which typically account for at least 200,000 sales annually. Analysts had projected a 15.8 million light vehicle selling rate, up from 15.3 million a year earlier. GM sales rose 4.1 percent, after analysts predicted a 0.8 percent rise.
The better-than-estimated results were welcome relief to automakers that experienced two months of quiet dealerships as blizzards and low temperatures kept buyers at home. Light-vehicle sales through February fell 1.4 percent, according to researcher Autodata Corp.
“Things are recovering to where we were last summer,” said Matthew Stover, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities in Boston. “The weakness we saw in January and February had more to do with weather than with the overall economy.”
Dealers began noticing more traffic on their lots in the second half of March, as the weather finally broke and snow began melting in many heavily populated regions of the country, executives said.
“It was encouraging to all of us - after a softer January, February - the spring market kind of bloomed in March,” John Felice, Ford’s U.S. sales chief, said Tuesday during a conference call with analysts and reporters. There were “encouraging signs coming out of March” that “bode well” for this quarter, he said.
April could be a strong month for auto sales because there is good credit available, plenty of inventory on dealer lots and growing cash incentives from automakers, said Mark Wakefield, a partner at consultant Alix Partners in Southfield, Mich.
“This is the opposite of a perfect storm - it’s a perfect calm,” said Wakefield, whose firm advised GM through its 2009 bankruptcy. “Most Aprils don’t have blizzards and subzero temperatures. So with these positive conditions and meaningfully increased incentives, the sales market looks good.”
Among large automakers, only Honda failed to beat analysts’ predictions. Honda sales fell 2 percent last month, compared with a forecast of a 1.8 percent decline, the average of seven analysts’ estimates.
Honda Accord sales fell 7 percent to 33,962, falling to third place for the month in the mid-size sedan market behind the Toyota Camry, which had 41,953 deliveries, and the Nissan Altima, with 35,921 sales. Ford said it sold a record 32,963 Fusion sedans, up 8.8 percent.
Ford’s total light-vehicle deliveries rose 3.3 percent to 243,417. F-Series pickups gained 5.1 percent to 70,940, while Escape SUV sales slipped 0.8 percent to 28,701, the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker said in a statement. The second-largest U.S. automaker topped the average of nine analysts, who projected a gain of 1.1 percent.
Toyota deliveries rose 4.9 percent to 215,348 cars and light trucks, the company said in a statement. Nissan sales jumped 8.3 percent to 149,136 vehicles, a monthly record, according to a company statement. That beat projections of a 1.3 percent gain for Toyota and unchanged sales for Nissan, the average of seven analysts’ estimates.
“Solid March sales pushed first-quarter industry results ahead of last year’s pace despite one of the harshest winters on record,” Bill Fay, group vice president of the Toyota division, said in a statement. “Toyota dealers had their two best sales weekends of the year late in the month, and we’re optimistic that momentum will spring us into April.”
However, automakers should temper their optimism in this slow-growth economy, Stover said. Employment and income growth remain “sluggish,” which weighs on auto sales, he said.
“The good news about these sales is that it says the weakness that we saw in the first two months was really more cosmetic than economic,” Stover said. “But we still are trying to answer the question of whether or not things are actually getting better.”
Hyundai and affiliate Kia, South Korea’s two biggest automakers, sold a combined 121,782 vehicles last month, a 3.7 percent increase. The average of seven analysts’ estimates was for a drop of 2.6 percent. Hyundai, based in Seoul, reported a 1.9 percent decline in sales to 67,005, while Kia said its deliveries grew 12 percent to 54,777.
Chrysler deliveries rose 13percent to 193,915 for a 48th straight monthly gain, the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company said Tuesday in a statement. The third-largest U.S. automaker beat the average of eight analysts, who projected an expansion of 10 percent. Ram pickup sales rose 26 percent to 42,532, Fiat sales gained 24 percent to 4,738, and Chrysler’s Jeep brand increased 47 percent.
Nissan reported record sales of crossover utility vehicles, such as the Rogue, which posted record monthly deliveries of 19,420.
Volkswagen said its VW brand sales, excluding Audi, fell 2.6 percent in March to 36,717 cars and light trucks. Although its Jetta sedan deliveries rose 6.3 percent to 13,687, sales of its Tiguan small sport utility vehicle plunged 30 percent to 2,315.
GM might have been little affected by the recall of 2.6 million small cars tied to 13 deaths, because those models are no longer in production. The Detroit-based company reported sales increases of 14 percent to 46 percent for its three small Chevrolet cars, the Sonic, Spark and Cruze.
“We expect to see solid economic growth in the months ahead, with the job market, household income and consumer spending all showing positive signs,” Kurt McNeil, GM’s U.S. sales chief, said in a statement.
GM’s results, originally scheduled to be released at 9:30 a.m. New York time, were delayed because of a computer system issue, the company said Tuesday in a statement.
Information for this article was contributed by Alan Ohnsman of The Associated Press.
Business, Pages 27 on 04/02/2014