Toyota Sees Increase in Activity

Those March incentives seem to be kicking in for Toyota: After launching some hefty cash-back and low-financing deals in the wake of its recall troubles, consumer contacts to dealers for Toyota vehicles on Cars.com grew by more than 86 percent over February.

Not to be lost in the Toyota swirl was a big boost in activity for the redesigned Hyundai Sonata, the only non-Toyota in the Top 10 gainers for March.

Leading the pack for Toyota was the RAV4, which saw a more than 200 percent increase in contacts over February.

The incentives, which are unusual for Toyota but pretty typical for the Big Three, also helped increase contacts for the Corolla (+135%) and Camry (+122%). Those two models are Toyota’s best-selling and at the heart of the sticky accelerator recall.

The 2011 Sonata was apparently helped by Hyundai’s massive marketing blitz; what’s interesting is that consumer contacts grew more than 75% from February, when Hyundai spent millions to promote the car on the Super Bowl, among other places.

On the down side, large SUVs took a tumble, with the Chevy Suburban (-24%), GMC Yukon (-23%) and Lexus RX 350 (-22%) down. Perhaps that’s because of the jump in gas prices, but the biggest loser for February was the Acura MDX (-28%), which is more of a gas-sipper than the other three.

See all of the winners and losers below…