Click
here to read the results of each of the world’s top eight auto manufacturers.
Click
here to read the March 2013 forecast data.
Winter has ended in more way than one: American consumers apparently
are curing their snowy cabin fevers with a little auto-retail therapy.
And thanks in part to the weather and in part because of the end of the
Japanese fiscal year, the U.S. auto market had its best seasonally
adjusted sales month since February 2007.
The final March U.S. new-auto sales tally came in Tuesday at about
1.53 million unit sales with most automakers, including the world’s “Big
8” manufacturers reporting their monthly sales figures. The figure
exceeded the 1.48 million consensus forecast by industry watchers. The
seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR), a 12-month running estimate
that reflects the health of the automotive market, jumped in March to
16.4 million, well above the consensus forecast of 15.8 million. That’s
well above the 15.3 million SAAR in February, which was only slightly
higher than it was the previous month.
