U.S. Car Sales Pace Slows

March car and light truck sales in the U.S. climbed to 1.60 million from 1.55 million in the same month of 2015, Autodata Corp. reports.

But the data service says last month’s annualized sales rate declined to 16.7 million from 17.1 million a year earlier, its slowest pace in 13 months. Light trucks, which including crossover vehicles, continued to gain ground (+11% to 908,000) on cars (-6% to 687,500).

Domestic brands hiked sales 6% to 717,700 units. Asian brands advanced 2% go 739,000 vehicles. European marques dropped 4% to 138,800.

Among the domestic makes, Ford (+8% to 253,100 units) narrowly outsold traditional leader General Motors (+1% to 252,100), aided by GM’s earlier decision to cut back on fleet sales. Chrysler advanced 9% to 209,700 vehicles.

March results were mixed for Asian brands. Segment leader Toyota saw sales drop 3% to 219,800 vehicles. Nissan and Honda rose 13% to 163,600 and 9% to 138,200, respectively. Hyundai was flat at 75,300 units, and its Kia affiliate slipped 1% to 58,300 units. Mazda plunged 27% to 23,400. Subaru was flat at 49,300.

March was a difficult month for the top three European brand, as demand shrank for Mercedes Mercedes (-3% to 31,200 units), BMW (-13% to 30,000) and Volkswagen (-10% to 26,900). Volume also ebbed for Mini (-18% to 4,800) and Fiat (-24% to 3,400). The segment’s two sales bright spots were Audi (+8% to 18,400) and Land Rover (+29% to 8,700).