By Katie Davis U .S. auto sales trailed estimates at a time when man- ufactures are investing aggressively on purchase incentives to get drivers behind the wheel of new The industry was looking for March to be the month that U.S. auto sales would rebound from decreases in both January and February, but that did not happen as robust discounts were unable to spur demand for new cars. Automakers are approaching a “slippery slope” regard- ing incentives, said Jeff Schuster, an analyst at LMC Auto- motive. Companies have to ratchet them up “just to get that bump again and pretty soon you’re out of room. You can’t move too much anymore.” The industry’s annualized sales pace, adjusted for seasonal trends, got a pot hole slowing to 16.6 million units in March, down 100,000 units from 16.7 million this time last year. Analysts were anticipating a growth of 500,000 units to 17.2 million, but that did not happen. cars. All was not bad in the industry as Nissan Motor Co. managed to increase sales 3.2 percent, beating analysts’ estimates for a 2.8 percent gain. The main reason behind this was recent demand
model continues to outsell the long-time leader within the segment, Honda’s CR-V.
“Some of our competitors got really crazy in March,” Judy Wheeler, vice president of U.S. sales for Nissan, said in an interview. Incentive spending across the industry rose 13 percent from a year earlier, a jump of about $415 per vehicle but this is not translated into more sales for automakers. Nissan has taken a different approach and rather than dis- counting has focused on customer engagement, using the force, as was seen in the recent Star Wars marketing campaign, to capitalize on the growing number of millennial buyers and the popularity of the movie franchise to help boost sales, which seems to be working, at least for now.
for the Rogue crossover. Rogue sales increased 43 percent in March, as the
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • APRIL 2017
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