Cruze transition leads to decline in March sales report

LORDSTOWN — The Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze’s March sales saw a decline compared to March 2015.

The 58 percent drop is likely due to the transition from the first-generation Cruze to the next-generation.

The new Cruze just recently started to head out to dealerships.

Overall, on Friday General Motors reported sales of 193,524 vehicles in March to individual or “retail” customers, up 6 percent year over year, driven by a 7 percent increase at Chevrolet and a 13 percent increase at GMC.

GM notes the strong performance of Chevrolet and GMC has helped grow the automaker’s retail deliveries since April 2015.

Despite GM’s move to reduce fleet sales, total sales were up 1 percent.

March 2016 had two more selling days than March 2015.