• by Karl Greenberg , April 4, 2007

Asian makes are up, domestics down, no surprise there. But wait. There is a "better late than never" moment. While Ford and Chrysler sales are down, their crossover vehicles are selling strongly. While crossovers have helped Asian makes grow market share and sales for the past few years, the Big Three, for complicated reasons, have been late with car-based SUVs, and so-called tall wagons.

Although Ford's sales were down last month 9% versus the month last year, the company is pulling in strong sales for crossovers and mid-sized cars. Ford's Edge crossover, introduced last year, seems to be catching on, however, and sales of its mid-sedans Fusion, Milan and Lincoln MKZ are strong. The company reported that for March, the trio of cars set sales records--with Fusion up 48%, Milan up 45% and the Lincoln MKZ up 13% versus the month last year.

The company, which sold 264,975 vehicles last month, also reported that its sales of Lincoln, Ford and Mercury crossovers were up last month by 42%. Edge accounted for 10,915 units delivered last month--a 37% increase over the month before, with the Lincoln version up 32%, per the company.

Chrysler--which launched around 10 new or redesigned vehicles last year, the most the company has ever rolled out over a 12-month period--saw a similar trend: sales of Chrysler Dodge and Jeep vehicles slipped 5% last month, to 206,435, but the DaimlerChrysler unit got strong results from its Dodge Nitro crossover, with 7,532 vehicles sold for the month. The other strong seller was the new four-door version of the Jeep Wrangler, the Wrangler Unlimited.

Sibling Mercedes-Benz, which had struggled over a year ago when Chrysler Group was a star in the DaimlerChrysler portfolio, is now setting sales records. Mercedes posted sales of 21,612, its highest March number to date in the U.S., with year-to-date sales of 55,985--a 9.3% increase versus the quarter last year. The company also says the quarter just passed is also its best ever. Driving sales is the volume marquee, C-Class garnering 4,486 sales, while sales of Mercedes SUVs were up 33% increase over March 2006.

Sales of Honda and Toyota vehicles, numbers that are starting to seem as surprising as the outcome of a Floyd Mayweather, Jr. boxing match, broke records again last month, driven by compact SUVs and cars. Toyota reported best-ever monthly sales of 242,675--an increase of 7.7% versus the month last year, which was also a best. March is also the first month in which Toyota has posted hybrid-vehicle sales of over half a million units delivered, per the company.

Toyota division sales were up 13.6%, with Camry again leading the mid-sedan market with sales of 42,254 units. The Rav4 compact SUV, which has been selling briskly since the re-introduced redesign last year, commanded sales of 17,837, up 27.5% versus the month last year.

Lexus also reported a best-ever month for its cars, selling 18,128 of the vehicles last month--a 26.7% increase versus March 2006.

Honda posted its best March ever and its third-best month in history, with sales of 143,392 units, a 7.3% increase. Sales were driven by compact SUVs, the CR-V and Pilot.

Hyundai also notched its best-ever March with help from its Santa Fe crossover, with sales of 41,984, a 22% increase over February. The Santa Fe accounted for 8,470 units, twice what it did last March.

Mazda, one-third owned by Ford, reported best-ever March sales of 47,206, driven by compact Mazda3, mid-sized Mazda6 and its new CX-9 crossover. Year-to-date sales are up 17.5%.

Nissan, whose sales were soft enough last year to require the company to offer buyouts for white-collar workers, reported a 3.9% increase in sales last month. It sold 111,119 vehicles last month and reported that its Infiniti premium division saw a 12.6% increase in sales last month versus the month in 2006, while Nissan division was up 2.8%, to 91,209 vehicles.

Mitsubishi may be backing away from the lip of a grave it dug for itself in 2003. The company, which sold 118,558 vehicles last year, posted March sales of 12,536, a 22.3% gain over a year earlier, with first-quarter sales up 23.2%.

By press time, GM hadn't reported sales.