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Cars.com Analyst Forecasts March 2014 Sales, Evaluates Q1
Chrysler, Nissan See Most Improvement in Q1 2014

CHICAGO, March 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cars.com, the leading online resource for buying and selling new and used cars and a comprehensive digital marketing resource for car dealerships and manufacturers, projects a SAAR of 15.8 million new-car sales in March, up 3.3 percent from March 2013 and up 3.0 percent over February. This would mark the highest March SAAR since 2007.

Jesse Toprak, chief analyst for Cars.com, projects retail units to account for 81.5 percent of this month's total sales, up 3.2 percent from March 2013. New light-vehicle sales in the United States (including fleet) are expected to close out the month at 1,486,402 units, up 2.3 percent from this time last year and up 24.7 percent over the previous month.

"New vehicle sales are stuck in neutral so far this year," said Toprak. "Q1 results are lower than we anticipated and therefore we are lowering our annual forecast to 16.1 million units. Despite the rather stagnant pace of sales, we should keep in mind that the fundamentals of the industry are still sound. Improving consumer demand and lending trends, as well as a remarkable lineup of new products, will continue to bring a healthy level of buyers into showrooms. However, we are certainly transitioning from a market that was in hyper-recovery mode to a mature market where double-digit gains will be increasingly difficult to attain."

New Vehicle Sales, Q1 2014 vs. Q1 2013

Manufacturer

Q1 2014

Q1 2013

Change

Chrysler Group

469,779

429,387

9.4%

Ford

573,509

590,011

-2.8%

GM

642,676

664,963

-3.4%

Honda

329,722

337,651

-2.3%

Hyundai/Kia

284,345

291,262

-2.4%

Nissan

340,514

318,281

7.0%

Toyota

516,545

529,444

-2.4%

Volkswagen

128,826

142,663

-9.7%

Industry Total

3,688,679

3,687,533

0.0%

*Based on actual sales for January – February and forecast for March 2014



Unit Sales

Manufacturer

March 2014 Sales Forecast

YoY

MoM

Chrysler Group

186,014

8.2%

19.3%

Ford

240,762

3.4%

32.9%

GM

249,086

1.3%

12.1%

Honda

137,686

1.2%

37.1%

Hyundai/Kia

113,108

-3.7%

25.4%

Nissan

134,684

-2.2%

16.8%

Toyota

210,896

2.7%

32.4%

Volkswagen

50,421

-7.8%

21.6%

Industry Total

1,486,402

2.3%

24.7%



Market Share

Manufacturer

March 2014 Sales Forecast

Mar-13

Feb-14

Chrysler Group

12.5%

11.8%

13.1%

Ford

16.2%

16.0%

15.2%

GM

16.8%

16.9%

18.6%

Honda

9.3%

9.4%

8.4%

Hyundai/Kia

7.6%

8.1%

7.6%

Nissan

9.1%

9.5%

9.7%

Toyota

14.2%

14.1%

13.4%

Volkswagen

3.4%

3.8%

3.5%

ABOUT CARS.COM
Cars.com is an award-winning online destination for car shoppers that offers information from consumers and experts to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. Cars.com offers thousands of new and used vehicle listings, consumer reviews, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and many other tools to take the drama out of car shopping. Cars.com puts millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make confident buying decisions. Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures LLC.

SOURCE Cars.com

For further information: Thomas Muellner, tmuellner@cars.com, 312.601.5685