Automakers rode the wave from last year?s all-time industry sales record with a modest three-percent year-over-year increase in March, for a total of 1.59 million cars. Yet maintaining that momentum is already proving tough. Even with two extra sales days in March, the seasonally adjusted annual rate dipped below 17 million for the first time since April 2015, according to WardsAuto. While we?re only just entering the second quarter, at this pace the industry is headed for 16.46 million total sales for 2016, down by 1.01 million in 2015 (and it?s not all due to Volkswagen). Let?s take a look.

Downtime at BMW, Mercedes, and Toyota
Across all automakers, U.S. car sales were down five percent while crossovers, SUVs, and light trucks increased by 10 percent. That certainly explains why Toyota sold a record number of Highlander and RAV4 models (up 15 percent each) and its Lexus SUVs were up 10 percent (with the NX at 25 percent and the old-school LX at 46 percent). Overall, Toyota was down three percent to 219,842 cars, with the Camry sinking nine percent (to a still-impressive 36,991 cars) and the Prius dropping 25 percent. Even the almighty Corolla fell eight percent. BMW, including Mini, was down 13 percent to 34,795 cars. It was the same car/SUV story here, with BMW cars down 24 percent and SUVs (excluding the X1) up 32 percent. In the lower-roof category, only the 2-series (29 percent) and 7-series (16 percent) posted gains, while the X1 (132 percent) and X3 (191 percent)...