Hot Brands Prop Up April Auto Sales

Auto sales in April were in a holding pattern, as car shoppers seemed to prefer tire-kicking to buyers. Still, there was a gradual rebound in sales last month, and the automotive category is on track to increase overall U.S. sales by 10-15% for the year as a whole.

Industry sales were much better than a year ago – when the auto market was at death’s door – but not as robust as just a month earlier, in March 2010. But automakers can be encouraged by at least one indicator amid the reams of inconclusive sales statistics that they released on Monday: Hot cars and brands are making a strong comeback.

It’s one hopeful sign that American consumers have removed themselves from the economic backdrop, and have looked past their own financial uncertainties, enough that their gradually rising collective enthusiasm may yet propel the U.S. economy into a strong recovery.

Take General Motors, for instance. Its overall April results trailed the pack. Yet GM executives (including outgoing vice-chairman Bob Lutz) noted that their most important newly launched vehicles – Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Equinox, Buick LaCrosse, GMC Terrain (which you can see in the video above) and Cadillac SRX – enjoyed sales year-to-date through April that were nearly 300 percent higher than the vehicles they replaced.

“GM has got a lot of momentum for some of its new products,” said Jessica Caldwell, lead U.S. sales analyst for Edmunds.com. “They’re performing well and are carrying the company. So when they come out with new products [later this year], that will help even more.”

Good thing for GM that it also plans to introduce a new version of its classic Buick Regal marque soon and to begin selling in the U.S. its Cruz subcompact, which it already is manufacturing and selling in Asia and Europe.

Plucking another winner out of April’s car-brand derby: Infiniti.

The Nissan luxury brand clearly is benefiting from an overall uptick in sales in the automotive-luxury segment, which also helped Lexus and the German brands, among others, to strong results in April.

But Infiniti’s performance rose above the others, with overall sales up 46 percent for the month compared with a year earlier on the strength of demand for the G lineup and the all-new M.

“With the M and G,” said Ben Pore, vice president of Infiniti, “we now have one of the freshest lineups in the U.S. luxury market.”

Nissan will face tough competition from Toyota, which plans to continue its zero-percent financing offer and two years of free maintenance on select models through June 1st, in tandem with "unprecedented" deals on the Lexus.