Car sales continue to be the good news economic story

March was a very good month for GM, Ford, and Chrysler - and further proof that the recovery is moving along at a more than decent clip. Overall sales were on pace to hit 15.3 million vehicles in 2013, which would mark another strong year. People are buying cars for lots of reasons: Necessity (older vehicles are showing their age), indulgence (investors are making nice money in the stock market), opportunity (automakers are doing deals), and confidence (consumers believe that the economy is more than holding its own). As you can see from the Calculated Risk chart, sales are still below pre-recession highs, and Jonathan Browning, Volkswagen's U.S. chief, cautioned that the numbers are still soft in certain parts of the country. Still, not half bad.