Beating Predictions, US Car Sales Are Up

2018 was supposed to be a horrible year for new car sales. It’s not been anything like that boom a couple of years ago, but as The Japan Times reports, March was a great month. Most of the big automakers reported big gains for March versus the same month in 2017.

Winners for the month include Ford, GM, and Toyota. Nissan saw a sales dip, despite the Rogue outselling the Toyota RAV4. Volkswagen was on a real tear, racking up a 17.8 percent sales increase. Of course, it’s on the mend since the whole Dieselgate scandal, plus the three-row Atlas is helping.

The big winner at the close of Q1 was Volvo. It posted a massive 49 percent sales increase in the US market. This is another story of an automaker on the mend in North America, thanks to an aggressive reworking of its entire lineup. Considering Volvo isn’t done with its makeover, sales could keep punching up.

Kelley Blue Book credited demand for redesigned SUVs for this sales surge.