Nissan, Ford, Subaru Lead April Sales Gains

Ford led the Detroit 3 in sales last month with an 18 percent climb in volume while Subaru led the industry with a 25 percent gain and Nissan came in a close second with 23 percent.

Ford’s strong status was supported by a 21 percent gain in car deliveries while utility vehicle and truck sales rose 16 percent. Meanwhile, Chrysler and General Motors tied by climbing 11 percent. Overall, the Detroit 3 gained market share because of rising demand in the light truck market.

In the passenger car segment, Ford’s strongest sellers were by far the Focus with 22,557 units and the Fusion with 26,722. Even combined, those two don’t stack up to perennially popular F-Series, which moved just over 59,000 units.

Despite its volume, the trucks still didn’t mark the biggest increase for Ford. Excluding police interceptors, that crown goes to the Escape’s 52 percent gain over March, 2012 when the crossover was still in its previous generation.

Nissan’s sales rose 25 percent, although a 10 percent gain by Infiniti pulled the brand’s overall sales figure down to a 23 percent gain.

Despite being a typically low volume vehicle, the Leaf electric car boasted a ludicrous 423.5 percent sales gain over last year with a total 1,937 units sold compares to 370 a year ago. Why the spring-loaded sales spike? Nissan slashed the price by almost 20 percent for the 2013 model year.

Demand for the Titan pickup, on the other hand, remained weak with a 33.8 percent drop. But that isn’t a surprise. The Titan is almost a decade old and in desperate need of a replacement. Nissan plans to do exactly that, and is well positioned after bringing on former Ram boss Fred Diaz last month.

But the biggest gains came from the smallest volume seller out of this month’s top three. Subaru boasted a 25 percent sales bump in April; its best-ever for the month. Demand for the Forester had a heavy hand in making that true, both in sales volume and annual gains. The brand sold 9,366 of its boxy small crossovers, representing a gain over 65 percent. The Outback came closest to matching those sales with 8,730 units, but that only accounts for a tiny 2.1 percent gain.