Auto Industry News
March sales surge on tap for auto industry
Wednesday, 31, March 2010
Generous incentive spending, spurred by the once-thrifty Toyota Motor Corp., likely led to a huge spike in March U.S. vehicle sales, with retail demand expected to reach levels not seen in about two years.Automakers will hand in their monthly tally on Thursday and analysts are looking for Ford Motor Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!f/quotes/nls/f (F 12.97, -0.31, -2.33%) to pace a broad industry surge.Chrysler is seen as the only possible exception, as its dearth of new products could lead to the only decline among the major manufacturers.
Toyota /quotes/comstock/13*!tm/quotes/nls/tm (TM 81.25, +0.27, +0.33%) is expected to ride its record level of promotional spending to a 37% jump from a year ago, according to Edmunds.com. While not quite as bad as analysts had forecast, Toyota's sales in February still fell 8.7% to 100,027 vehicles. See full story.Toyota, working to rebound from its recall fiasco, is offering zero-percent financing and some leasing deals on several of its top-selling models through April 5, triggering competing deals from most of its rivals.