As the country's employment rate improved, consumer confidence as well as spending has increased leading to increases in sales of most major carmakers in the United States in March - their best in 16 years.
Car sales in the U.S. increased overall by 3.2 percent to 1.59 million. This is the highest the car industry has experienced since 2000, based on date from Kelley Blue Book. However, the increase is only around one half of the 6 percent growth reported last year.
According to Autodata Corp., SUV sales have increased by 11 percent while car sales fell by 6 percent.
Major automakers such as General Motors, Hyundai, Nissan, Fiat Chrysler, Honda and Ford have all reported increases mainly because of their trucks and SUV sales.
However, sales of Toyota cars fell almost 3 percent. Even its sales increases in SUVs couldn't overshadow its drop in car sales which is nearly 10 percent. Toyota's top-selling Camry also saw a drop in sale of 9 percent to just below 37,000 units.
Even as car sales are increasing, there are emerging signs that the multi-year sales boom might be nearing its peak.
Overall, the car industry was able to sell a total of approximately 1.60 million units in March, based on Autodata records. The industry has been enjoying seven years of continuous growth.
Although that figure represents an increase of 3.1 percent compared to a year ago, it is still below by 60,000 units as projected by Edmunds.com analysts.
So, even if March's sales have increased, "We may have peaked last year," warned David Whiston, an analyst at Morningstar.
"I think people should get used to a lot slower growth in the US auto industry than what we've enjoyed post-recession. We've had a really nice run, one of the longest stretches of annual sales growth since the 1920s. So that's not normal for growth," Whiston added.
