March 2016 U.S. LV Sales Thread: SAAR Falls Below 17 Million For First Time Since June

WardsAuto tracks light-vehicle (LV) deliveries throughout sales reporting day. Monthly year-over-year change represents the change in daily sales rate (DSR).  March had 27 selling days this year compared with 25 days in 2015, meaning DSR % change will be smaller than straight volume %change for year-over-year comparisons this month.

Related Table 

U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Summary table

Overview:  Expected record-March sales failed to materialize as U.S. automakers under-performed against an earlier WardsAuto forecast.  (See article).

Instead, the industry's daily sales rate (DSR) fell 4.7% from same-month year ago, as automakers delivered a total of 1.585 million light vehicles in March. That brought the full first quarter tally to 4.06 million units, up 3.1% from same-period year-ago. 

General Motors narrowly edged out Ford as the No.1 LV seller in March, delivering 252,128 cars and light trucks compared to Ford's 247,414 LVs. GM accounted for 15.9% off the market, followed by Ford's 15.6%.

Toyota 13.9% take was good enough for the No.3 spot, followed by FCA's 13.3% market share. Nissan, which recorded its best single-month sales every, pushed by Honda to claim the No.5 position with 10.3% of LV sales. 

The seasonally adjusted annual rate fell to 16.46 million-units, the lowest SAAR since February 2015, and the first sub-17-million SAAR since June last year. 

Today's sales report thread appears below. See related articles for additional details.

UPDATE 2:05 PM ET: Hyundai is the most recent automaker to report a year-over-year decline in daily sales, with 75,310 deliveries equating to a 7% drop in DSR. The South Korean automaker, however, is outpacing year-ago YTD by a slim margin on 173,330 units through the first quarter.

UPDATE 1:35 PM ET: BMW performed even worse against year-ago than chief rival Daimler (see below). The automaker delivered 34,795 BMW- and Mini-brand vehicles in March, resulting in a 19.7% decline in daily sales from same-month year-ago.

Through the first quarter, BMW sales trail year-ago by nearly 11%.

Kia saw its DSR fall 8.2% in March, on 58,279 deliveries, leaving its YTD sales to 3.7% above like-2015.

Subaru's daily sales also fell in March, lagging year-ago by 7.1%. The automaker's YTD sales are tracking 1% over year-ago Q1.

Audi bucked trend, outperforming WardsAuto's expectations, but still failed to match year-ago DSR. The automaker's DSR was down 0.4% from year-ago on 18,392 deliveries. YTD Audi sales are up 4.6%.

UPDATE 12:25 PM ET: Daimler joined the list of companies whose DSRs dropped below year-ago levels in March. The automaker delivered 31,731 LVs in the Month, a 10.7% decrease in March daily sales compared with 2015. The automaker's year-to-date sales are 1.1% below first quarter year-ago.

Fellow German automaker Volkswagen saw its VW brand vehicle sales fall 17% on a daily basis, on just under 27,000 deliveries. VW is tracking 12.5% below year-ago for the first three months of the year.

UPDATE NOON ET: Toyota daily sales fell nearly 10% from year-ago levels, on just under 220,000 March deliveries. On a volume basis the company's March sales were some 6,100 off year-ago pace, despite two additional selling days. Toyota's year-to-date sales are tracking 1.1% behind same-period 2015.

UPDATE 11:10 AM ET: Honda fell short of expectations, improving its March DSR by just 1.4% over same-month year-ago. The automaker delivered 138,221 vehicles in March. Through Q1 Honda sales volume is up 7.1%.

UPDATE 10:35 AM ET: Nissan reported its best sales month ever, with daily sales jumping 4.4% over the automakers prior best DSR set one year-ago. Nissan delivered 163,559 LV in the month setting a volume record and besting the company's next highest-selling month (March 2014) by over 14,000 units. Nissan YTD sales for the first quarter are up 8.9%.

UPDATE 10:00 AM ET: General Motors delivered 252,128 LVs in March, a 6.6% drop in daily sales compared with year-ago, and 3% below WardsAuto's forecast. GM's March sales leave the company's year-to-date sales for the first quarter event with same-period year-ago at roughly 684,000 units.

Ford daily sales were down 0.6% from like-2015, on 247,414 LV deliveries, in line with earlier projections. The automaker finished Q1 up 8% over year-ago, with just under 627,000 sales. 

FCA missed WardsAuto expectations by 4%, but eked out a 0.2% improvement in its DSR from same-month year-ago, delivering 211,616 LVs in March, and finishing the first quarter 9% over year-ago on 547,126 deliveries.