GM March sales up 21 pct as incentives draw buyers

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By TOM KRISHER (AP)

DETROIT — Sales of General Motors Co. cars and trucks rose 21 percent last month compared with a dismal March last year, a sign that U.S. auto sales are benefiting from an incentive war touched off by Toyota.

GM said Thursday sales of its four core brands — Buick, GMC, Chevrolet and Cadillac — rose 43 percent on strong demand for redesigned vehicles like the Chevrolet Equinox midsize crossover and Buick LaCrosse luxury sedan.

Meanwhile, Hyundai's sales rose 15 percent to 47,000 vehicles, propelled by sharply higher demand for its newly released Sonata sedan and its Tucson small SUV.

It's likely that higher incentives from GM and other automakers drove traffic to showrooms. Toyota Motor Corp. raised its rebates and low-interest financing deals last month to counter publicity about safety-related recalls, and other automakers were forced to respond.

GM says it sold 188,546 vehicles last month, up from the 156,380 it sold in March of 2009 as it was receiving government aid and heading into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The company, which is shedding Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Hummer, sold just over 27,000 vehicles from those brands in March of last year, but that dropped to about 3,100 last month because few cars and trucks remain on dealer lots.

Last month Toyota boosted interest-free financing, low-priced leasing and free maintenance in an effort to bring customers into showrooms as it dealt with the recall of more than 8 million cars and trucks around the world.

Toyota has been forced to recall cars and trucks mainly due to reports of unintended acceleration. The company is fixing gas pedals and floor mats in many of its top sellers including the Camry midsize sedan, a top-selling car in the U.S.

A top Toyota executive said on Wednesday that the automaker's sales would rise 40 percent in March and that some of those deals would extend into the spring. The company's sales fell 9 percent in February, before it launched its aggressive incentives. The broader industry's sales climbed 13 percent that month.

The automaker is to update its incentives on Monday.

Toyota's March surge likely outpaced the U.S. industry. Sales of new vehicles as a whole climbed 23 percent in March, according to market research firm J.D. Power and Associates.

Although auto sales have been steadily recovering, automakers have been raising their spending on incentives due to the shaky economy. Automakers are spending less on incentives now than they did a year ago, according to data from the auto Web site Edmunds.com.

Sales tanked in March of last year as the economy slowed, layoffs rose and GM and Chrysler headed into bankruptcy protection. Last March was among the worst auto sales months in decades.

AP Auto Writers Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit and Dan Strumpf in New York contributed to this report.