CANADA AUTO SALES MARCH 2009

In March of 2009, Americans were only able to buy cars on 25 different days. In March of 2008, Americans could buy cars on 26 different days. Seen in this light, Subaru and Kia actually sold more cars per day in the USA this March than they did last March. That's an achievement. However, every automaker competing for sales in the States last month sold fewer total cars than they did in March of last year. In fact, Saturn sales were down 59.6% south of the border in March. Even Hyundai sales were off by 4.8%.

The story is growing more similar in Canada with each passing month. Venerable import brands like Honda, Toyota, and Mazda struggled mightily under the weight of job losses and worried consumers. True, huge incentives from General Motors (no-charge maintenance for three years, free OnStar and sat-radio) helped March's downfall seem.... well, not as terrible as February's.

Anyway, in order of total sales, here are the Canadian auto Sales Stats for the month of March, 2009. Autoblog.com has the American numbers in an easy-to-read format.

General Motors: -17.6% to 24,695

Ford: -15.1% to 17,021

Chrysler: -26.6% to 15,846

Toyota: -25.5% to 14,538

Honda: -20% to 11,359

Hyundai: +25.5% to 8,818

Mazda: -22% to 7,060

Nissan: -6.5% to 7,024

Kia: +12.6% to 3,555

Volkswagen: -10.6% to 3,156

Mercedes-Benz: +26% to 2,181

Mitsubishi: +8.9% to 1,983

Subaru: +14.6% to 1,878

BMW: +8% to 1,711

Lexus: +21% to 1,363

Acura: -42% to 1,211

Audi: +25.4% to 979

Suzuki: -14.4% to 948

Infiniti: -29.8% to 581

Volvo: +5.6% to 491

Mini: +3.7% to 307

smart: -34.6%% to 212

Saab: +117.7% to 172

Porsche: +9.6% to 172

Land Rover: -26.9% to 171

Jaguar: -57.8% to 57