By William Spain, MarketWatch
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — With March auto sales for most car companies expected to show year-over-year growth, General Motors Co. managed a gain even as its sales pace slowed to close out the quarter — and it fell behind rival Ford.
Meanwhile, Chrysler had its best month in almost three years, sales results showed Friday, while Nissan set a record. But Toyota’s sales declined.
“It appears that we still have strong fundamentals for growth, however due to uncertainty over what is happening in Japan and the Middle East, we hit a bit of a speed bump in the trajectory of growth,” said Jesse Toprak, an analyst at TrueCar.com. “The seasonally adjusted rate was significantly lower than in February but it still shows steady year-over-year growth.”
In all, according to Autodata, the sales represent a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 13.11 million, down from 13.44 million in February but in line with the consensus estimate of economists polled by MarketWatch.
First out of the box to report numbers, GM /quotes/comstock/13*!gm/quotes/nls/gm (GM 32.41, +1.38, +4.45%) moved 206,621 vehicles last month, compared with 188,546 in March 2010, a gain of 9.6%.
For the full quarter, GM sales rose 24.1% on-year to 592,545. All of the company’s brands — Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac — gained retail and total market share during the quarter.
Particularly hot was the company’s new Chevrolet’s Cruze compact sedan, with sales almost triple those of the model it replaced.
Sneak peek of Chevy's 2013 Malibu
Chevrolet has said it will be unveiling the next generation of the Malibu sedan, for 2013, at the Shanghai Auto Show.
“Our plan was to get out of the gates quickly in the first quarter and we succeeded,” said Don Johnson, vice president of U.S. sales operations, in the sales report. “Consumers responded favorably to the value of our broad lineup of fuel-efficient cars, trucks and crossovers.”
For the month, the numbers “demonstrated our newest models continue to win over customers,” he added. “Vehicles like the Chevrolet Cruze and Equinox put us in great position to benefit from consumers’ increasing desire for fuel-efficient vehicles.”
Still the sales rise was smaller than in the previous two months as the company sharply curtailed incentives and discounts.
/quotes/comstock/13*!f F 15.16, +0.25, +1.68%
“The hefty — and costly — incentives from GM in the first two months of the year fell back to Earth in March, and that translated to lackluster retail sales,” said Edmunds.com analyst Jessica Caldwell. “The industry will be carefully watching GM’s performance this month to see if March was an aberration or the start of a downward trend.”
Shares of GM traded up about 4%.
Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!f (F 15.16, +0.25, +1.68%) posted a 19% rise in March sales, with a total of 212,777, boosted by strong growth for its Fiesta, Fusion, Escape and Explorer models.
The company’s F-Series was also on fire, rising 25%.
“With gasoline prices eclipsing $3.50 a gallon, consumers are placing a high priority on fuel efficiency in every size and kind of vehicle,” said Ken Czubay, vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service.
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