Medium, heavy truck sales up again

For the third consecutive month, March sales for medium- and heavy-duty trucks rose in the U.S. and Canada, according to WardsAuto.com. Class 8 sales in the U.S. were up 39% compared to March 2010, and up 34% for the first three months of 2011 compared to last year. In Canada, first quarter Class 8 volumes were trending almost 31% above 2010.

Class 8 U.S. deliveries for March totaled 13,010, up from 9,025 in March 2010. For the first quarter, U.S. manufacturers delivered 31,958 heavy-duty trucks, compared to 23,839 a year ago.

In Classes 4 through 7, March sales totaled 12,499 trucks, with Class 6 showing a 19% gain over the same month a year ago. Class 7 sales, however, dipped 4.4% below last year’s March totals. For the first quarter, Class 4-7 sales reached 30,935 units, compared to 9,708 units in 2010.

Canada recorded 1,958 Class 8 sales in March, up from 1,699 units for the same month a year ago. Class 4-7 sales for the month totaled 1,173 trucks, compared to 769 for March 2010. For the first three months of the year, heavy-duty sales rose 15.8% (4,535 units compared to 3,917 in 2010) and Class 4-7 rose 30.8% ( 2,551 compared to 1,950).