Best Month in 7 Years for Volkswagen of America

The American auto market has rebounded beautifully from the disaster in 2009, now re-becoming one of the most important ones not only for local auto makers, but for foreign ones as well. For the brands in the Volkswagen group, the numbers reported for the last month and the first quarter of the year are perhaps more exciting than for all others.

Over the weekend, Audi announced it had managed to sell enough cars in the first three months for the Q1 2011 to become the best first quarter it ever had on the US market. Now, mother company Volkswagen reveals the brand that carries the same name managed to post the best sales month in the past seven years.

The German brand sold 27,176 units last month in the US, representing an increase of 22.7 percent over March 2010. That brings the total number of Volkswagen cars sold in the first quarter to 67,039 vehicles, an increase of 15 percent over 2010.

The best-selling model in the VW lineup in March was the Jetta, which managed to sell a total of 16,969 vehicles, in both the sedan and Sport Wagen versions. At the opposite end, VW only sold 8 Passat wagons.

"We have truly launched into 2011 with strong momentum.  Not only did we enjoy the best Jetta sales month in company history, Volkswagen experienced the best overall sales month since 2004," said Mark Barnes, Volkswagen of America COO.

"Volkswagen is well positioned to continue this growth with the introduction of the all-new U.S.-built Passat and a new 21st Century Beetle later this year."