2014 Nissan Rogue Reaps Record Sales in March

Thanks to the 1-2 punch of the 2014 Nissan Rogue and 2014 Nissan Rogue Select—the latter being the previous-gen model that's still on sale now—the Nissan brand has claimed its 12th monthly sales record in the past 13 months. And that, in turn, resulted in an all-time monthly sales record for Nissan as a whole, too, including deliveries from its premium Infiniti brand.

Of course, the 2014 Nissan Rogue wasn't the only reason for the automaker's success in March. The Rogue duo did combine for 19,420 sales, which were 26.3 percent higher than during the previous March, when just a single model was on the marketplace. But two other vehicles in the lineup turned in new records last month as well, the 2014 Nissan Juke and 2014 Nissan LEAF. With Nissan showing off the refreshed Juke recently at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland, a new wave of buzz drove up the March volume of the current model by a robust 77.3 percent; the Juke's 6,943 deliveries also were the highest one-month total ever for the vehicle.

Meanwhile, the Leaf sparked a 12.1 percent improvement in sales during the past month, and its total of 2,507 deliveries raised its own record bar for March.

Other strong sales performers last month included:

• Nissan Sentra—In the very competitive compact class, against the likes of the Honda Civic and Ford Focus, the Sentra enjoyed a 38.4 percent gain in volume and delivered 19,323 units.
• Nissan 370Z—As motorsports season has revved up, so have sales for the Z car, which improved 18.5 percent in March after 793 deliveries.
• Nissan Frontier—Nissan's small pickup cooled off considerably in March, but its 7,140 sales were in the black by 4.7 percent, and it finished the quarter ahead of last year's Q1 pace by 46.7 percent.
• Nissan Murano—At the vey end of its lifecycle, the current Murano managed to move 5,296 units and grow March sales by 8.7 percent; the all-new 2015 Murano is scheduled to debut at the New York International Auto Show later this month.
• Nissan Quest—A sudden surge of interest in Nissan's minivan entry helped it achieve 1,559 sales and boost volume by 15.9 percent.

The bottom line for Nissan (and Infiniti) in March: 149,136 sales that were up by 8.3 percent versus the same month last year.