Autos continue downshifting sales trend
Their 3rd straight monthly decline drives stocks lower
DETROIT — Passenger car sales plummeted again in March, dragging U.S. auto sales to their third straight monthly decline, a strong indication that years of sales growth have come to an end.
Sales for the month fell 1.6 percent to just over 1.55 million vehicles, surprising analysts who expected a small increase.
For now, anyway, the auto industry isn’t worried. It’s making solid money selling reams of SUVs and trucks to consumers who are loading up on expensive features. But some analysts Ford’s sales fell 7.5 percent in March, the second-worst showing among large automakers. see large inventories of cars as a looming problem. Car sales were down almost 11 percent, while truck and SUV sales rose 5.2 percent, according to Autodata Corp.
“Trucks and SUVs, al- though they did well, it’s still hard to make up the lack of car sales,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of industry analysis for the Edmunds.com carbuying website. “You can’t have the other side of the industry completely not performing well.”
Hyundai suffered the biggest decline at 8 percent, followed by Ford at 7.5 percent, as popular car models such as the Sonata and Fusion suffered big decreases. Fiat Chrysler sales tumbled 5 percent, Toyota fell 2 percent and Honda just under 1 percent. But Nissan sales rose over 3 percent, Volkswagen’s gained just under 3 percent and GM posted an increase of just under 2 percent, all helped by SUV sales.
Drawing in buyers required a lot of cash, lowinterest loans and other incentives, however. Dealer stocks are growing because cars and trucks aren’t moving off the lots as fast as they did in the past.
The LMC Automotive consulting firm said incentives hit a March record, averaging $3,768 per vehicle and the highest amount since March of 2009.
Caldwell predicts this year’s sales will drop to 17.2 million, still strong but down from last year’s record of 17.55 million. Through March, overall sales were down 1.5 percent.
Automakers also are raising incentives a bit to keep sales moving, he said.
The lackluster sales led stock markets to start the second quarter with a thud Monday. But a late recovery helped stocks avoid bigger losses.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell as much as 18 points around midday but finished down just 3.88 points, or 0.2 percent, at 2,358.84.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost as much as 145 points but wound up with a loss of 13.01 points, or 0.1 percent, to 20,650.21. The Nasdaq composite shed 17.06 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,894.68. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks gave up 16.25 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,369.67.
A sell-off in auto stocks sent GM down 3.4 percent, Fiat Chrysler down 4.8 percent and Ford lower by 1.7 percent. And Ford is no longer the second-mostvaluable U.S. auto company. That distinction belongs to Tesla, which rose 7.3 percent and now has a market value of $48.63 billion, compared with Ford’s $45.47 billion. GM is valued at $51.19 billion.