It wasn’t a bad first quarter for carmakers, considering they were dealing with a war, rising gas prices and a comparison with a very strong first quarter of 2025.
Overall industry sales fell eight percent. At Ford, sales fell nine percent, GM had a ten percent sales decline, and Stellantis was the outlier, with its sales up four percent.
But all of these numbers were impacted by what happened in 2025, when buyers were flocking to dealers to beat what they feared would be tariff related price increases.
“What we’re comparing to is a really high March sales month of last year,” says Ford analyst Erich Merkel. “In fact March of last year was the highest sales month of last year.”
This March had what Merkel described as a “healthy” annual sales rate of 16.7 million. But that paled in comparison with an 18 million rate last year.
The strong March encouraged Merkel, who said he didn’t really see an impact from high gasoline prices.
“Y’know our best performance came in large SUV’s.”
It was a good quarter for utilities and pickups, which helped boost a comeback at Stellantis, which is trying to work its way back from a very rough 2025.
“This is positive, steady momentum as we continue to execute with three key priorities in mind: grow our sales, improve our industrial execution and enhance profitability,” said Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, in an email to employees. “But the work is not done. We are only starting to see what we are capable of achieving.”
Stellantis saw new products help its Jeep brand, and a very strong performance from Dodge and Ram.
GM, which had the largest sales drop of the Detroit Three, still lead the industry in overall sales of more than 626 thousand vehicles.
“We saw showroom traffic and sales steadily improve after January’s storms and March was a much stronger month,” says GM North America President Duncan Aldred. “We are well positioned for the future because of our operating discipline and the compelling value we offer, from affordable SUVs to premium vehicles and trucks.”
Most other major carmakers saw sales slipping in the first quarter. Honda sales were off four percent for the quarter. Toyota sales were almost even.
Ford analyst Erich Merkel says the next couple of months will likely be weak in comparison with some strong sales last year. But, the fundamentals remain strong.
“I think right now we’ve got a pretty healthy auto industry.”
