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By the Numbers - March 2009: Ain't No Joke Edition
by John Neff on Apr 1st 2009 at 4:40PM 
Despite today being April Fools' Day, not one of the sales figures reported by automakers below for the month of March 2009 is a joke. The U.S. auto industry's sales slide continues, and despite the overall market selling more vehicles in March versus February, nearly all brands fell versus the same month in 2008. The lone notable exceptions are Subaru and Kia. These two brands have ignored industry trends all year long, and this month Subaru posted a small 2.6% loss in sales volume versus last year. Adjusted for the daily average sales rate, however, Subaru sales were up 1.3%. Likewise, Kia's sales by volume were down just 0.6%, but its DSR was up by 3.4%. Hyundai also continues to hold its own, reporting a 4.8% fall in sales volume versus March 2008.
As for the rest of the industry, it appears that the performance gap between import and domestic automakers is narrowing, with Honda (-36.3%), Nissan (-37.7%) and Toyota (-39.0%) all reporting sales declines much closer to those of Chrysler (-39.3%), Ford (-40.9%) and General Motors (-44.7%). In fact, we've read a number of reports this afternoon that claim domestic sales were not as bad as expected. And that ain't no joke.
| BY THE NUMBERS - March 2009 |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | Vol. % Change | Total Sales 3/09 | Total Sales 3/08 | DSR* % Change | Daily Avg. 3/09 | Daily Avg. 3/08 |
 Acura |
-32.2% | 9,005 | 13,288 | -29.5% | 360 | 511 |
 Audi |
-19.4% | 6,433 | 7,986 | -16.2% | 257 | 307 |
 BMW |
-24.2% | 17,520 | 23,115 | -21.2% | 701 | 889 |
 Buick |
-40.2% | 7,369 | 12,317 | -37.8% | 295 | 474 |
 Cadillac |
-53.0% | 8,209 | 17,453 | -51.1% | 328 | 671 |
 Chevrolet |
-42.5% | 94,704 | 164,564 | -40.1% | 3,788 | 6,329 |
 Chrysler |
-51.9% | 19,502 | 40,539 | -50.0% | 780 | 1,559 |
 Dodge |
-32.8% | 57,728 | 85,906 | -30.1% | 2,309 | 3,304 |
 Ford |
-41.7% | 109,490 | 187,828 | -39.4% | 4,380 | 7,224 |
 GMC |
-50.3% | 19,086 | 38,422 | -48.3% | 763 | 1,476 |
 Honda |
-36.7% | 79,374 | 125,446 | -34.2% | 3,175 | 4,825 |
 HUMMER |
-75.9% | 831 | 3,451 | -75.0% | 33 | 133 |
 Hyundai |
-4.8% |
40,721 |
42,796 |
-1.0% |
1,629 |
1,646 |
 Infiniti |
-47.6% | 7,242 | 13,821 | -45.5% | 290 | 532 |
 Jeep |
-40.5% | 23,771 | 39,941 | -38.1% | 951 | 1,536 |
 Kia |
-0.6% |
24,724 |
24,871 |
3.4% |
989 |
957 |
 Lexus |
-42.9% |
14,239 |
24,939 |
-40.6% |
570 |
959 |
 Lincoln |
-33.0% | 7,310 | 10,913 | -30.3% | 292 | 420 |
 Mazda |
-33.3% | 21,974 | 32,929 | -30.6% | 879 | 1,267 |
 Mercedes |
-25.0% | 15,602 | 20,808 | -22.0% | 624 | 800 |
 Mercury |
-42.0% | 8,307 | 14,333 | -39.7% | 332 | 551 |
 MINI |
-15.9% | 3,605 | 4,289 | -12.6% | 144 | 165 |
 Mitsubishi |
-57.0% | 4,620 | 10,750 | -55.3% | 185 | 413 |
 Nissan |
-36.2% | 59,392 | 93,100 | -33.7% | 2,376 | 3,581 |
 Pontiac |
-30.8% | 17,583 | 25,417 | -28.0% | 703 | 978 |
 Porsche |
-29.1% |
1,749 |
2,467 |
-26.3% |
70 |
95 |
 Saab |
-57.3% | 1,265 | 2,962 | -55.6% | 51 | 114 |
 Saturn |
-59.6% | 7,333 | 18,146 | -58.0% | 293 | 698 |
 Subaru |
-2.6% | 16,249 | 16,685 | 1.3% | 650 | 642 |
 Suzuki |
-24.0% |
7,981 |
10,510 |
-21.0% |
319 |
404 |
 Toyota |
-38.5% |
118,563 |
192,791 |
-36.0% |
4,743 |
7,415 |
 VW |
-19.7% |
15,720 |
19,587 |
-16.5% |
629 |
753 |
 Volvo |
-31.4% | 6,358 | 9,263 | -28.6% | 254 | 356 |
| COMPANIES | ||||||
| BMW Group | -22.9% | 21,125 | 27,404 | -19.8% | 845 | 1,054 |
| Chrysler LLC | -39.3% | 101,001 | 166,386 | -36.9% | 4,040 | 6,399 |
| FoMoCo | -40.9% | 131,465 | 222,337 | -38.5% | 5,259 | 8,551 |
| General Motors | -44.7% | 156,380 | 282,732 | -42.5% | 6,255 | 10,874 |
| Honda America | -36.3% | 88,379 | 138,734 | -33.7% | 3,535 | 5,336 |
| Nissan NA | -37.7% | 66,634 | 106,921 | -35.2% | 2,665 | 4,112 |
| Toyota Mo Co | -39.0% |
132,802 |
217,730 |
-36.6% |
5,312 |
8,374 |
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
why not the LS2LS7? 4:43PM (4/01/2009)
HUMMER: -75%! Even cheap gas isn't going to bring back big SUVs I guess.
I'm surprised Subaru is still up. Not that I don't like Subarus, it's just that they don't offer substantially more to the customer than they did a year ago, so why would they be up?
Reply
BigMcLargeHuge 4:53PM (4/01/2009)
Overall, their sales are pretty flat.
They just have a niche market that replaces their old cars with repeat buys every so often. 2008 had about 0% change one way or the other, and I'm sure 2009 will be the same.
Jeff 4:58PM (4/01/2009)
Maybe it's the former "I need a 4x4 SUV!!!" buyers moving to Subaru for the AWD?
nastinupe 5:15PM (4/01/2009)
Damn... Even with Acura's new TL, sales are waaaaay down. Fail for the design team.
Honda, please let go of Acura, it's pulling you down. Just rebadge the TSX and MDX and keep it moving.
Ligor 5:24PM (4/01/2009)
that;s because those that want a CUV w/AWD can go to Subie and get a station wagon or a sedan with AWD for relatively cheap
they have plenty to offer for $20k and AWD comes standard, so those few that need to buy a car are now thinking a $30k Murano or Edge or a $20k WRX wagon which would suffice just as well considering you'll only need hte extra space once in a full moon
seanleeforever 5:26PM (4/01/2009)
as much as i hate Acura's new grill, it is going alright. TL sold more copies than ES, G, IS, A6, and maybe CTS (couldn't find the number)
RAdZer0 6:48PM (4/01/2009)
Hummer is down because GM keeps talking about bankrupting them to get rid of them. Same for saturn and saab.
Sektor 8:12PM (4/01/2009)
I am surprised there are 900 suckers who bought hummers.
zamafir 11:37PM (4/01/2009)
nastinupe, you do realize acura was posting double digit sales declines early last year long before anyone else was? They were hurting seriously before the redesign. with the redesign the blandest simply became blander.
MGBYG 10:05AM (4/02/2009)
RAdZer0...true, but why is Cadillac down 53/51.1%??! F'in Ouch!!
They have some of the BEST products GM has EVER made/sold for the US market, while BiteMyWeiner is only down 24.2/21.2%?
The overall talk of Ch11 maybe freaking (richer than us) folks out so they buy German, if at all?? Leasing must have pretty much ground to a halt, too.
TomdeTomTom 4:48PM (4/01/2009)
Well...at least there aren't any surprises...
All brands did well considering.
Minus HUMMER....
Reply
Sektor 6:02PM (4/01/2009)
I am quite surprised at GM and Chrysler's numbers, all things considered.
Frank 6:06PM (4/01/2009)
Some interesting tidbits concerning Chrysler's March sales:
The Caravan and Town & Country were nos. 1 and 2 in the minivan segment and now lead the Odyssey and Sienna in both monthly and YTD sales.
The Jeep Wrangler, with 10,000 sales, not only outsold every traditional body-on-frame SUV, it outsold every light GM truck except the Chevy Silverado.
Chrysler (Chrysler, Dodge & Jeep) sold more light trucks than Ford (Ford, Mercury, Lincoln and Volvo).
alex 6:19PM (4/01/2009)
sektor, were you suprised that GM and chrysler were that bad? i think their numbers are fairly consistent with the entire market.
anyway, i took at GM's #s and i did notice one interesting thing. Malibu sales are down only 2%. With the market tanking like it is, that must be a significant gain in market share
Samurai Jack 8:03PM (4/01/2009)
@Alex...
When did the current Malibu hit the market? If it was last spring and we're comparing it to sales of the old Malibu... well, that's not such a good thing.
I honestly don't know the answer to this, but since you did the research already perhaps you do?
Sektor 8:09PM (4/01/2009)
@alex:
I thought they were surprisingly good.
Conundrum 8:28PM (4/01/2009)
@ Samurai Jack...
Alex makes a good point because the current version of the Malibu was on sale last year. The Malibu is gaining market share in the midsize category by having a smaller drop than most competitors.
Fernando 9:39PM (4/01/2009)
Eventually, things will level off and there is no way that they can do this bad next year (compared to this year), right?
Samurai Jack 2:05AM (4/02/2009)
Thanks for the confirmation Conundrum. I'm not grinding any axes here, I really was curious.
Malibu is a good car and it's good to see it's doing well sales-wise.
asus 2:24AM (4/02/2009)
I'm not so surpised the new Malibu is gaining in market share. Its a damn nice car...
Honda went off the deep end with its new accord re-design. And their interiors on all but the highest end models have been Fisher-price cheeziness for a while now.