Saturn's March sales rose 37.5% to 34,171 units, up from 25,807 last year. Year-to-date sales totalled 74,618, up 29.9% from this time last year when retailers had sold 57,438 cars.

Sales were lifted by the Vue and Ion. Saturn sold 11,664 Vues last month, up a whopping 116.2% from 5,602 last year. A total of 20,653 Vues have been delivered since the beginning of this year; at this time last year 11,984 Vues had been sold. 13,057 Ions were sold last month, up from 7,340 sold in February 2003.

As retailer stock of the discontinued S-Series cars continues to dwindle, sales fell to 1,136, down 89.9% from 11,669 cars last year. L-Series sales were down only 1.1% to 8,314, down from 8,536 in March 2002. Sales of the redesigned L-Series cars are up 20.8% for the first three months of 2003. A total of 22,863 have been sold this year, compared to 18,927 last year.

"Despite current economic uncertainty, industry sales remain solid, in part due to across-the-board incentive activity by all manufacturers," said John Smith, group vice president of GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing. "GM's results show improvement both in unit sales and share over the quarter. We'll build upon this with the 'Zero to Sixty' campaign that is effective today. Additionally, we are pleased with our richer mix, reflecting the continuing improvement of truck sales, which made up 62 percent of our retail volume in March. And, we continue to experience sales gains at Cadillac, HUMMER, Saturn and Saab, as well as with our new vehicle introductions, including the all-new Pontiac Grand Prix launched just last month. We expect momentum to continue to build with 15 more new vehicle launches before year-end."

Saturn and Cadillac cars had strong sales in March, with increases of 16% and 10.5%, respectively. Saturn Ion continued to gain momentum with 13,057 sales. March sales records were posted for Chevrolet Impala (21,962), Pontiac Vibe (7,810), and Cadillac CTS (4,588). GM's luxury car sales were up 8% for March and up over 4% calendar-year-to-date, driven by strong sales of the Cadillac CTS and new Saab 9-3.

GM total truck sales were comparable to year-ago levels. Importantly, full-size pickup sales were up 7.5%. Total utility vehicle sales for the month (98,486) were in line with year-ago levels, and GM achieved March record sales for a number of utilities, including Saturn Vue, Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy and Cadillac Escalade.

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Source: General Motors