April Vehicle Sales Star Detroit Makers

April car sales came in weaker than expected, but pickup truck sales were robust, turning Detroit makers into the month's stars.

April car and truck sales totaled 1.3 million vehicles, up 9 percent from April a year ago. April was the 15th consecutive month of 1-million plus U.S. vehicle sales. April's Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of sales came in below 15 million vehicles — 14.9 million to be exact. It marked the first time the SAAR has fallen below the 15-million mark since the Hurricane Sandy-ravaged month of October 2012, when the SAAR was 14.3 million, but October's lost sales and then some were made up in November, when the SAAR hit 15.5 million, and December . Before the latest run, the SAAR had not been at more than 15 million vehicles since February 2008, according to Edmunds.com's data.

"The SAAR has remained relatively flat since November but saw a slight tick down in March and then again in April," said Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell in a sales day conference call with media. She noted April can be an odd month, sandwiched between generally the two biggest sales months of the year — March, often skewed by the last-minute flurry of sales before the Japanese automakers' fiscal year ends on March 31, and May, the kick-off for the summer selling season and a month that ends with big Memorial Day promotions.

"We're not sounding the alarm yet, since we felt this recovery wouldn't be linear. But we will be watching sales in May," Caldwell said, noting the little improved employment picture may be suppressing further increases in car sales.

Caldwell along with auto company economists and sales executives said in sales day conferences calls that they see fundamentals generally positive for continued strong car sales: a generally improving economy, further unleashing of pent-up demand supported by readily and widely available credit at cheap rates, including an abundance of leasing, and compelling new products. Leasing accounted for about a quarter of all April sales, Caldwell noted.

"Car-buying conditions are strong and will continue to release pent-up demand," said Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales operations, echoing comments made by other auto company executives.

In addition, consumers may be feeling a "wealth factor," pointed out Edmunds.com Chief Economist Lacey Plache. "Both home prices and the stock market have remained at post-recession highs. These wealth effects have spurred consumer spending this year, including on car sales," said Plache. "This is one key factor supporting our recent 2013 auto sales forecast revision from 15 million to 15.5 million. Even though fiscal issues at home and abroad continue to crop up, consumers have not been derailed."

While a negative for consumers shopping for good deals, industry incentives stood at about $2,316 per vehicle, down in April from March by 3 percent but up nearly 13 percent from a year ago. Bucking the March-to-April downward trend was Chrysler, which boosted the average incentive by 3 percent to a high among the six major automakers at $3,273 per vehicle. Honda also increased its incentives by nearly 6 percent, but it always is and continues to be the stingiest among major automakers for incentives. Even with the increase, Honda's average per-vehicle incentive was just over $1,000, still the least of the Big Six.

The incentives and pricing picture could change going forward in light of the shifting Japanese yen, which may allow Japanese automakers flexibility to maintain or lower prices even while adding content and/or to more heavily market and incentivize vehicles. To that end, Nissan announced on sales day that it was cutting prices on seven of its 18 models by between 2.7 percent ($580) to 10.7 percent ($4,400). Models include the Japanese automaker's top-selling Altima midsize car, which gets the smaller price cut. Nissan redesigned the Altima last June and hinted then that it had a goal of surpassing the best-selling Toyota Camry. The price cut is clearly another shot across Toyota's bow. Other Nissan models getting price cuts are the newly revamped Sentra compact car, low-volume Juke small crossover, Murano midsize crossover, Rogue small crossover, the Maxima full-size car and the large Armada SUV, which gets the biggest price cut.

Indeed, the weakness in April sales forecasts was largely due to Japanese automakers underperforming analysts' expectations. Edmunds.com had forecasted just over 1.3 million vehicle sales for a 10-percent increase and a SAAR of 15.2 million vehicles. Toyota had been expected to gain a bit but, in fact, recorded a 1-percent decline. Nissan had a big month, up 23 percent, but even that wasn't as big an increase as expected. Edmunds.com expected Nissan to have a 30-percent climb.

However, the Detroit Three were the stars of April, turning in strong and, in some cases, stronger-than-expected performances, largely but not solely on the strength of full-size pickup truck sales. Bloomberg News reported that in the first quarter of 2013 all three Detroit automakers gained market share, something that hasn't happened since the early 1990s. The trend continued in April: GM, 18.5 percent from 18 percent last April; Ford, 16.5 percent from 15.2 percent; and Chrysler 11.9 percent from 11.6 percent.

Pickup trucks gained nearly two percentage points of market share in April versus last April last year — 12.2 percent of all sales versus 10.2 percent last April, according to Edmunds.com. Improvements in housing and construction are fueling strong pickup truck sales.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are the biggest sellers of full-size pickup trucks and have the most loyal owners in the industry. The sales leader, Ford F-Series, posted sales 24 percent higher than a year ago. Chrysler's new Ram 1500, completely revamped last fall, posted a hefty 49-percent hike. Chevrolet Silverado sales soared 28 percent. GM's new Silverado and Sierra launch in the second quarter so it is selling down its current models. While Toyota doesn't sell anywhere near the volume of trucks that the Detroit automakers do, its Tundra posted a nearly 15-percent increase in sales. Conversely, the Nissan Titan saw a 33-percent slide in sales.

Also positive for Detroit companies, net prices for some pickup trucks were up, noted Edmunds.com's Caldwell. Net prices (transaction prices including incentives) for the Ford F-150 and Ram 1500 were up in April from March. The Chevrolet Silverado's net price was flat, due to the model year sell-down. "The strong net prices indicate that consumers are not buying on discount. In fact, they are buying more expensive trucks," Caldwell said. That's positive for the bottomlines of manufacturers.

Also promising to the bottomlines of automakers is the strength of luxury market, including for General Motors' Cadillac and Ford's Lincoln brands. Cadillac posted the largest year-over-year sales growth of any car brand and was second only to Ram in growth among all brands, car or truck. The new Lincoln MKZ, which finally began arriving in decent numbers to dealerships in April, posted a 115-percent gain to 4,012 vehicle sold, an all-time record and the first time the brand's luxury sedan broke the 4,000-unit mark in a month. The MKZ's performance lifted the entire Lincoln brand by 21 percent for its best sales month since August 2012.

Though they posted year-over-year sales declines, the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry remained the best-selling cars in America in April, with the Accord edging out the Camry by a couple thousands units.

General Motors: GM sold 237,646 vehicles in April, up 11 percent compared with a year ago. GM said retail sales increased 10 percent, fleet sales were up 16 percent and the fleet mix was 28 percent of total sales. It was GM's best April in five years.

"We're very optimistic because GM's market share is growing, the economy continues to move forward and important car and truck launches are just getting underway," said GM's McNeil.

Compared with last April, all four GM brands posted higher total and retail sales. Cadillac sales soared by 34 percent on the strength of its new ATS, with sales of 2,725 units, and XTS, delivering 2,891 sales. The various Escalade models posted increases. CTS sales plummeted 43 percent as Cadillac sells down the current model to make way for the new one this fall. The still volume-leading SRX had a 13-percent sales decline.

Chevrolet sales were up about 11 percent due to healthy sales of smallish car sales, large trucks and crossovers. Sales of the Silverado, in sell-down mode as Chevy prepares the new version for a second-quarter launch, soared 28 percent to 39,395 vehicles. The next best-selling Chevy, the Cruze, posted a 21-percent gain to 22,032 units. The Malibu held even at 21,734 units. Sonic posted a 28-percent gain to 8,151 vehicles. The new Spark chipped in 3,121 units. Also posting gains were the Tahoe, up 55 percent to 9,052 units, the Traverse, up 8 percent at 8,405 vehicles, the Avalanche, making its swan song, up 15 percent to 1,927 units.

Sales of the Chevrolet Impala fell as it being sold down to make way for the new one just hitting dealerships. Also posting declines were the Corvette, also in sell-down mode, Camaro and Volt, down 10 percent to 2,306 units.

Buick's 11-percent gain came from Verano (up 13 percent) and Encore, new to the brand and delivering 2,916 sales. The volume-leading and recently-freshened Enclave saw a 4-percent decline to 4,797 units. LaCrosse and Regal, both about to be replaced by freshened models, posted declines.

GMC sales climbed 7 percent on the strength of the Acadia, up 10 percent, Sierra, up 13 percent, and Terrain up 2 percent.

By segments across all brands, GM reported sales of crossovers were up 14 percent. Trucks, which include pickups, vans and SUVs, were up 17 percent, and car sales rose by 6 percent. Large pickups climbed 23 percent.

Ford: Ford Motor Co. sales in April were 212,584, an 18-percent jump compared with April 2012, as the automaker posted its best April since 2007. The gain was led by three of Ford's most popular models: the Fusion midsize sedan, Escape compact crossover and F-Series pickup truck — all of which pounded out record or near-record April sales — as well as a solid month for the rebuilding Lincoln luxury-vehicle unit.

With 26,722 sales, the Fusion generated its best-ever April performance and a 24-percent improvement over the same month last year. Nor did the Fusion's outsized month come at the expense of other Ford family cars: the Focus compact was up 16 percent to 22,557 sales and the Fiesta subcompact gained 18 percent on 6,080 deliveries. The C-Max compact wagon delivered 3,608 incremental sales, but the Taurus large car was off 12 percent to 5,887 units and the Mustang, which found 7,751 buyers, was off less than 1 percent compared with last April.

The surging Escape posted an enormous 52-percent gain on 25,826 sales, which made the small crossover Ford's third best-selling model for the month, and the Explorer midsizer sold 14,204 units for a 6-percent gain. But Ford's other utility models declined in April, including a 34-percent slide for the Flex to just 1,808 sales and a small 1.5-percent drop for the Edge midsizer on 10,357 deliveries.

Meanwhile, sales for the ever-popular F-Series pickup line grew by 24 percent to 59,030 units, marking the trucks' best April since 2006.

At Lincoln, the new-generation MKZ midsize sedan helped lead the division's scramble to recast its image with a 115-percent leap on 4,012 sales. The upside from the MKZ's strengthening appeal was offset, however by a 44-percent drop for the MKS flagship to just 730 sales.

April sales for both of Lincoln's crossover models declined, with the MKX off 7.5 percent to 1,740 sales and the MKT down 31 percent on a meager 453 units. Balancing that was the Navigator full-size SUV, up 27 percent on 680 sales.

Toyota: Toyota Motor Sales, including Toyota, Lexus and Scion, reported April sales of 176,160 vehicles, a decrease of 1 percent form a year ago. The automaker said retail sales rose 4 percent and claimed the Toyota division was the No. 1 retail brand for the second consecutive month.

Toyota brand posted April sales of 158,069 vehicles, down 2 percent from a year ago. On the plus side, Toyota's new models are performing well. Sales of the new Avalon rose 119 percent to 6,321 cars, its best April since 2007. The new RAV4 had its best-ever April with sales up 22 percent to 18,541 units. Toyota truck sales climbed 12 percent to nearly 70,000 units; Tundra sales were up 15 percent at 8,276 units, Tacoma sales rose 19 percent to 12,971 vehicles, and Sienna van sales edged 5 percent higher to 9,948 units. In fact, every Toyota truck, SUV and crossover posted gains.

Camry sales, while down 14 percent, still topped 30,000 units for the fifth consecutive month and was only slightly edged out by the Honda Accord as the industry's best-selling car. Prius hybrid sales fell 21 percent to 19,889 units. Sales of Toyota's other small cars — Yaris and Corolla — also dropped.

Scion sales gained 4 percent even though every model posted a sales decline. The relatively new FR-S sports car buoyed Scion sales to positive territory with 1,629 sold.

Lexus reported April sales of 18,091 units, up 3 percent from a year ago. The luxury brand's strength came from the newly redesigned LS, up 60 percent to 700 units, and ES, up 71 percent to 5,122 sold, and RX, up 3 percent to 7,053. The rest of the Lexus line reported declines.

Chrysler: Chrysler Group reported April sales of 156,698 units, an 11-percent increase from April a year ago. It was Chrysler's best April since 2007 and its 37th consecutive month of year-over-year sales gains.

Seven vehicles set records. The freshened Jeep Compass (up 23 percent) and Jeep Wrangler (up10 percent), the Dodge Challenger (up 17 percent) and Dodge Journey (up14 percent), the Fiat 500 (up 1 percent) and the Ram Cargo Van (up 110 percent) had their best-ever April sales. The Dodge Durango (up 65 percent) and Jeep Grand Cherokee (up 27 percent) had their best April sales since 2005. The Dodge Dart small car had its best month since it was launched last June at 8,099 units.

Chrysler's headliner was Ram. Ram Truck brand sales soared 49 percent, the largest percentage gain of any Chrysler brand. Ram 1500 sales rose 49 percent; cargo van sales soared 110 percent.

The Dodge brand had an 18-percent increase on the strength of Challenger, Journey and Dart. The rest of the line was down with the volume leading Caravan minivan off 13 percent to below 10,000 units.

The Chrysler brand fell 13 percent. Sales of the full-size 300 sedan nosedived by 47 percent, midsize 200 sales fell 6 percent to 12,492 units and Town & Country sales gained 4 percent to 11,224 minivans.

Jeep brand sales edged 2 percent higher but are still struggling in anticipation of the new Cherokee to replace the Liberty. All other Jeeps posted double-digit increases.

Honda: American Honda reported sales of 130,999 in April, a 7-percent increase compared with April 2012, as the company continues to leverage the appeal of significant redesigns for four of its most important models: the new-generation Accord midsize sedan, a revised Civic compact car and the RDX compact crossover from its Acura premium-vehicle division.

The all-new Accord continued its sales charge in April, racking up 33,538 sales, although the raw number was down 5 percent compared with last April, when Honda had begun to clear inventories of the previous-generation Accord. The Accord's sales nonetheless bettered by more than 25 percent those of a similarly burgeoning competitor, Ford's all-new Fusion.

April also was a strong month for the Civic compact car, which was recently benefitted from a revision mostly to address interior shortcomings. The Civic convinced 26,453 buyers in April, an 8-percent gain. The aging Fit subcompact was up 34 percent on 4,286 sales, but Honda's hybrid-electric models Insight sedan was off 47 percent, selling just 391 copies for the month. Honda's other hybrid model, the CR-Z, barely nudged past the Insight with 405 sales, although the number did represent a 21-percent gain compared with the same month last year.

Honda's perpetually popular CR-V led the brand's crossover models with 26,519 sales and a 12-percent hike. The Pilot midsizer was up 20 percent on 10,613 sales, while the Ridgeline midsize pickup and Odyssey also posted respective 48-percent and 13-percent gains for the month.

At Acura, the still-surging RDX crossover helped fuel a 14-percent overall sales improvement for the brand, its 4,088 sales marking a 106-percent gain. Balancing the RDX, however, was a 27-percent plunge for the larger MDX crossover, which sold 2,877 units in April.

More worrying was a 48-percent plunge for Acura's TSX line, often the brand's best-seller, as it appears Acura may be seeing some buyers shifting to the less-expensive ILX compact car, the relatively new, Civic-based addition to the Acura model range. The ILX sold 1,894 units in April while the TSX was off by a vaguely similar number.

Nissan: Nissan North America, which includes the Nissan and Infiniti brands, reported April sales of 87,847 units, up 23 percent from a year ago. Nissan brand sales rose 25 percent to 80,003 vehicles. Sales of Infiniti vehicles were up 10 percent over the prior year to 7,844 units.

Nissan brand sales were driven by retail sales gains by top-selling models like Altima, Pathfinder, Sentra and Rogue. Company executives said retail sales of Nissan-branded models rose more than 32 percent.

Sales of Nissan Altima rose 35 percent to 21,991, driven by a 42- percent increase in retail deliveries. Nissan Rogue crossover sales set a new April record at 11,904 units, an increase of 39 percent over the prior April. Nissan Pathfinder sales were up 215 percent to 6,473, setting a new April record and marking the sixth consecutive month it posted an increase in deliveries of at least 145 percent. Sales of the all-electric Nissan Leaf jumped 424 percent to 1,937, spurred by the move of vehicle assembly to Nissan's vehicle and battery assembly facilities in Smyrna, Tenn., as well as a substantial price repositioning to include a wider range of trim levels and added value. The new Nissan Sentra posted a 45- percent sales increase, at 10,734 deliveries.

Posted declines on the car side of Nissan's business were the Versa, Cube, Maxima, Juke, 370Z and GT-R. Nissan also did not capitalize on the boom in truck sales with Titan sales plummeting 33 percent to a mere 1,038 units. However, with Nissan appears to be seeking a reversal to its truck fortunes with the recently hiring a top truck executive from Chrysler. Sales of other truck, SUV and crossover models were a mixed bag: Frontier, Xterra, Pathfinder and Rogue were up; Titan, Armada, Murano and Quest minivan sales were down. NV commercial van sales were up.

Infiniti's sales increase came on the strength of the G sedan, which had a 29-percent increase to 2,696 units. FX crossover sales rose 13 percent. The new JX kicked in TK sales

Hyundai: With sales of 63,315 in April, Hyundai Motor America surpassed its April, 2012 total by 2 percent as Dave Zuchowski, executive vice president of national sales, said, "April is always a transitional month going into our peak selling season."

Hyundai's sales leader for the month was the Elantra compact car, its 24,445 sales marking a healthy 45-percent increase compared with last April. The Elantra and the redesigned Santa Fe midsize crossover and Azera full-size sedan — respectively up 10 percent on 6,940 sales and up 48 percent on 1,409 units — were Hyundai's only sales gainers for the month, however, as seven of Hyundai's ten models experienced sales declines.

That included the Sonata midsize sedan, which was off 22 percent to 16,077 sales, the Genesis line, which sold 2,584 units for a 27-percent slide and the Equus flagship, which unit now had surged but showed a 25-percent retreat in April to 261 sales.

Also off in April was Hyundai's Accent subcompact (down 23 percent to 4,730 sales), while sales for the Tucson compact crossover and Veloster coupe generally were flat.

Kia: At 47,556 Kia Motors America sales in April surpassed those of April, 2012 by six units. That six-vehicle gain nonetheless was enough to assure Kia of its best-ever April.

April gainers for Kia included the brand's best-seller, the Optima midsize sedan, up 33 percent on 14,678 sales and the Rio subcompact, which sold 4,531 units for a 13-percent jump. The Soul compact hatchback found 11,311 buyers for a 6-percent gain and the all-new Cadenza flagship contributed 61 incremental sales.

Sales for all other Kia models were down in April, however, including the Forte compact car (-26 percent to 5,212 sales) and both of Kia's crossover models, the Sportage compact and Sorento midsizer, which respectively declined 13 percent and 7 percent.

Volkswagen: Volkswagen of America sold 33,644 vehicles in April, a 10-percent decline from a year ago. Volkswagen President and CEO Jonathan Browning said the "choppy" month, which got off to a slow start but closed strong, was challenging especially for the compact and midsize sedan segments in which the German automaker competes. He noted in a conference call on April sales that industry truck sales, a segment in which Volkswagen does not compete, rose 10 percent while the midsize sedan segment, where Volkswagen does play, rose only 3 percent.

The only Volkswagen models posting increases were: the redesigned Beetle, up 78 percent to 3,679 units; the CC, up 46 percent 1,655 cars; Tiguan, up 7 percent to 2,488 crossovers; and Jetta Sportwagen up 3 percent to 1,968 units.

Volkswagen's volume leading Jetta sales in total were down 17 percent to 13,078 units, while its other best seller, the Passat, was down 10 percent to 9,069 units. Diesel sales accounted for 21. 7 percent of Volkswagen's April sales.

SUBARU: Subaru of America reported April sales of 32,943 vehicles, a 25-percent increase over the year-ago month for the Japanese automaker's best-ever April and keeping Subaru on track for yet-another annual sales record — its fifth consecutive one — and likely its second year of 300,000 plus annual sales.

As always, Subaru's strength is coming from its newest model. This time it is the all-new 2014 Forester, which registered a 65-percent hike in sales to 9,366 units making it Subaru's top-seller. The new XV Crosstrek added sales of 4,433 units — and adds a hybrid version soon — and BRZ sports car sales came in at 812 units.

"Demand for the all-new 2014 Forester has been especially strong," said Thomas J. Doll, president and chief operating officer, Subaru of America, Inc.  "We expect to see sales for the Forester and XV Crosstrek continue to grow throughout the year."

Sales of the No. 2-selling Subaru Outback edged 2 percent higher to 8,730 units. But other volume leaders reported lower sales: Impreza posted a 31-percent decline to 4,692 units but the Impreza WRX had a 12-percent rise to 1,508 vehicles; and Legacy sales were off 14 percent at 3,286 units. Tribeca sales skidded 25 percent to a scant 116 units.

BMW: The BMW Group, including the BMW and Mini brands, reported April sales of 29,011 vehicles, an increase of 8 percent from a year ago. BMW brand sales rose 10 percent to 23,225 units while Mini brand sales edged 1 percent higher.

 

"The solid April results are a good set-up for the months ahead as BMW transitions to model year 2014 with a range of new models coming to market," said Ludwig Willisch, President and CEO, BMW of North America. "Our dealers are reporting a sizeable increase in business and we expect to see even more in May and June."

On the BMW side, strength came from double-digit increases in 5 Series, 6 Series and 7 Series sales. The new X1 kicked in 1,556 units. Sales of the volume-leading 3 Series dropped 9 percent to 8,236 cars.

On the Mini said, the Roadster and Paceman reported increases while the rest of the line posted declines.

Mercedes-Benz: Mercedes-Benz USA recorded April sales of 26,157 Mercedes, Smart and Sprinter vehicles. The German automaker claimed April marked the highest second quarter start in its history.

Mercedes brand models posted a 6-percent gain of 23,635 vehicle. Mercedes' strength came from double-digit increases for the C-Class, up 14 percent to 7,338 vehicles, and S-Class, up 16 percent to 1,103 units. SL Class sales soared 275 percent to 938 units.

Similarly, G-Class sales rose triple digits — 129 percent — to 188 units. GLK sales rose 31 percent to 2,702 units, and M-Class up 7 percent to 3,280 vehicles.

"We've entered the second quarter of 2013 at an incredible pace," said Steve Cannon, president and CEO of MBUSA.  "A record first quarter gave us a great start.  With our completely redesigned E-Class now in showrooms, I fully expect to see continued momentum in the months ahead."  E-Class sales dropped 17 percent in April 5o 4,431 units.

Smart sales fell 13 percent to 667 units. Sprinter cargo van sales fell 6 percent to 1,855 units. Sales of the high-performance AMG models were 574 for the month, up 9 percent.

MAZDA: Mazda North American Operations reported April U.S. sales of 19,894 vehicles, a decline of 8 percent. Only two models posted sales increases: the CX-5, now Mazda's second best-selling model had sales soar 78 percent to 6,262 units; and the CX-9 posted an 11-percent sales hike to 1,694 units.

Mazda's best-selling Mazda3 had sales down 17 percent to 7,067 units; Mazda6 sales were down 22 percent to 2,933 cars; Mazda2 sales fell 46 percent to a mere 564 units; Mazda5 sales were down 19 percent to 762 units; and MX-5 Miata sales fell 12 percent to 612 units.

Mazda models equipped with SkyActiv Technology accounted for 74.4 percent of all Mazda sales or 14,795 vehicles. Of all Mazda3 sales, 79 percent were with Skyactiv. All 2014 Mazda6 sales were with Skyactiv.

Audi: Audi reported April sales of 13,157 vehicles, up 14 percent and the 28th consecutive month of record sales. Only December 2012 and March 2013 had higher sales than April.

"Audi shows no sign of slowing down in the U.S. market, and April clearly demonstrated that fact," said Mark Del Rosso, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Audi of America. "To record the third-best sales totals ever in the traditionally fickle month of April is a remarkable achievement for our brand." 

Audi models that posted sales increases were: the volume-leading Q5, up 32 percent to 3,241 crosssovers; A4, up 1 percent to 3,143 units; A5, up 27 percent to 1,809 units; A6, up 22 percent to 1,905 units; A8, up 30 percent to 467 units; and Q7 up 33 percent to 1,183 units. A3 sales plummeted 91 percent to a scant 55 cars. A7 sales slid 17 percent to 645 cars. R8 and TT sales were down double digits. The new allroad kicked in sales of 468 units.

LAND ROVER JAGUAR: Jaguar Land Rover North America posted April sales of 4,684 vehicles, up 7 percent from the year-ago April. Land Rover sales were up 8 percent to 3,543 units. The new Range Rover posted a 20-percent sales increase. Jaguar sales were 1,141 cars, up 6 percent. Sales of the XF sedan, now equipped with all-wheel drive and new powertrains, sales grew 54 percent.

VOLVO: Volvo Cars of North America reported April sales of 4,464 units, a decline of 8 percent. The S60 sports sedan was the top seller for the month with 1,547 units sold, but that was an 11-percent decline from a year ago. Recording sales increases were the XC60, up 15 percent to 1,455 units, the XC70, up 27 percent to 439 units and the C30, up 11 percent to 184 cars.

PORSCHE: Porsche Cars North America, Inc. set a new best-ever month record with April sales of 4,032 vehicles. That was a 17-increase from a year ago. "This is the first time in history that Porsche has delivered more than 4,000 cars in one month in the United States," said Detlev von Platen, President and CEO, Porsche Cars North America, Inc.

Boxster/Cayman sales were roughly seven times what they were a year ago at 890 units. Cayenne sales rose 27 percent to 1,750 cars, with diesels accounting for 29 percent of all Cayenne sales. Sales of 911 sports cars fell 18 percent to 891 units. Panamera sales dropped 42 percent to 501 units.

MITSUBISHI: Mitsubishi Motors North America reported April sales of 4,461 units, a decline of 16 percent from a year ago. The U.S.-built Outlander Sport posted a 77-percent gain in sales to 2,111 units, the third highest ever sold in a month and the model's eight consecutive month of sales increases. Lancer sales rose 8 percent to 1,201 units. The Lancer Evo had a 13- percent gain to 257 units. The all-electric i model had a 60-percent increase to 127 units.