Economic uncertainties kept buyers away from car lots in the first quarter as U.S. sales plummeted 12% for both domestics and importsAutomakers could only wish that the March sales numbers reported on Apr. 1 were a joke, but no one was laughing.
U.S. light-vehicle sales for the month of March fell 12% from the year-ago month, to 1,356,868. That was the worst result so far this year, based on monthly year-over-year comparisons. For the first quarter of 2008, U.S. sales were down 8% from the year-ago quarter, to 3,577,293.
Each of the Big Three had large double-digit sales decreases in March: General Motors (GM) fell 18.9%, to 277,751. Ford Motor's (F) sales dropped 14.2%, to 212,379. And Chrysler's fell 19.4%, to 166,386.
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