by Calculated Risk on 4/01/2010 11:17:00 AM

From MarketWatch: General Motors U.S. March sales rise 20.6%

This is based on a very easy comparison: in March 2009 U.S. light vehicle sales fell 35% to 9.69 million (SAAR) from 14.9 million (SAAR) in March 2008. The sharp decline last year was due to the financial crisis, the recession, and reports of the then impending bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler (Chrysler filed for bankruptcy at the end of April, 2009, GM filed for bankruptcy on June 1, 2009).

I'll add reports from the other major auto companies as updates to this post.

UDDATE 1: From MarketWatch: Ford March U.S. sales rise 39.8% to 183,783 units

UPDATE 2: From MarketWatch: Chrysler U.S. March sales fall 8.3% to 92,623

UPDATE 3: From MarketWatch: Toyota March U.S. sales grow by nearly 41%

NOTE: Once all the reports are released, I'll post a graph of the estimated total March sales (SAAR: seasonally adjusted annual rate) - usually around 4 PM ET. Most estimates are for an increase to just over 12 million SAAR in March, from the 10.343 million SAAR in February.