LI car sales gain in March, led by Toyota

Long Island car dealers generally had a good month in March, according to newly available registration figures showing an almost 30 percent improvement over a year earlier.

But the improvement, while welcome, simply reverses a 30 percent decline a year earlier from March 2008 and leaves the retailers still almost 4 percent below the pre-recession level of March 2006.

And the good cheer was spread unevenly; Asian brands gained 48 percent from a year earlier in March, led by recall-plagued Toyota, which offered rebates as high as $3,000 and interest rates as low as zero to avoid losing market share.

"We found that people were extremely receptive to the rebates and special financing and leasing," said general manager Denis Dagger of Smithtown Toyota, who said sales at his dealership were up about 28 percent in March from a year earlier.

But the Detroit Three brands, as a group, gained less than 3 percent, according to the figures from auto data provider R.L. Polk & Co. of Southfield, Mich.

The local registration figures mirror national sales trends. Nationwide, sales of new vehicles in March were 24.3 percent above those a year earlier, and Toyota's were up by almost 38 percent - not including Lexus and Scion - as the carmaker offered rebates, cut-rate financing and attractive lease deals in a bid to overcome negative publicity about the investigations and safety recalls of millions of its vehicles.

Dagger says some of March's strength was due to pent-up demand - purchases postponed from February because of the bad press and February's snowstorms.

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Nationally, sales softened a bit in April but still were up by almost 20 percent from a year earlier. Local figures aren't available yet for April. Dagger says his sales stayed strong but have slowed a bit this month because Toyota cut back on the discounting. "This month," he said, "they backed off ever so slightly." He believes rainy weather and the volatility in the stock market also have hurt sales.

Based on the registration figures, Asian automakers sold 11,141 new cars and trucks on Long Island in March, compared with a total of 3,962 for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler and 3,279 for European brands. Honda was the most popular Asian brand, with 2,531 new ones registered in March - 31 more than Toyota.

Their gains in March gave Asian automakers an almost 61 percent share of the Long Island market, up 2 percent from December. Detroit Three automakers were left with 21.5 percent.