TOYOTA: Back to back quarterly declines

Toyota Motor North America's U.S. sales dropped 24 percent in March to 194,178 on widespread inventory shortages at both Toyota and Lexus, which got worse as the first quarter progressed. For the quarter, the Japanese automaker's U.S. sales fell 15 percent to 514,592, which allowed it to remain where it finished 2021 — as the nation's top-selling automaker, ahead of General Motors.

It was the second consecutive quarterly decline for the Japanese automaker,

Brands: Toyota, down 23% in March and off 15% for the quarter; Lexus, down 29% for March and off 13% for the quarter.

Notable nameplates (quarter): Toyota RAV4, down 11%; Camry, down 21%; Tacoma, down 20%; Tundra, up 18%; Lexus RX, down 4.1%; NX, down 30%; ES down, 1.4%

Incentives (quarter): $1,060 per vehicle, down 60% from a year earlier, TrueCar says

Average transaction price (quarter): $40,077, up 13% from a year earlier, according to TrueCar

Fleet mix (March): 8.4%, according to TrueCar

Inventory: 120,479, a 17-day supply

Quote: "We're taking it week-to-week, month-to-month, and I always tell dealers, we're gonna build every car we get parts for. It's that simple," David Christ, head of the Toyota Division, told Automotive News. "We have a huge incentive on our end to build and ship, and with the consumer demand where it is now, even if we started building cars at full capacity today, it's going to take us a little while to get through these back orders, the people that want cars."

Did you know? March was Toyota's eighth consecutive down month, and Lexus' second down month. Toyota Tundra sales were up 57 percent in March to 10,960 as the automaker prioritized production of its redesigned full-size pickup, which debuted last year.