SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

Auto trend and forecasting site TrueCar.com has just released its Performance Scorecards for automotive manufacturers and brands for the month of April, grading each manufacturer and brand.

Coming in atop the OEM rankings was BMW, which showed  the largest gain of the period as it rose from a B- in March to an A+ rating for April.

The Performance Scorecards grade on eight different measurements including pricing, sales, incentives, customer loyalty, market share and days in inventory.

Subaru and Jaguar/Land Rover each earned A grades to take second and third place in the manufacturer listing on the scorecards in April. With grades of C, C- and D+ respectively, Mazda, Suzuki and Volvo claimed the lowest OEM grades.

Manufacturers with the largest gains for the period, behind BMW, were Volkswagen, moving from a B- to a B+; General Motors, rising from a C+ to a B; and Mazda, moving from a D+ to a C.

Manufacturers showing the steepest declines from March to April were Ford, dropping from an A+ to a B-; Toyota, from a B+ to a B-; Mitsubishi, from a B to a C+; and Volvo, from a C to a D+.

In rating by brand, BMW tied with Fiat to lead the class, both earning an A+. The second spot was a three-way tie between Kia, Audi and Land Rover, each with an A.

Volvo was graded lowest by brand with a D-, as Mazda and Suzuki each earned a D. Third lowest by brand were Mitsubishi, Infiniti and Nissan, all with D+ scores.