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Completed because of a request from The Good Car Girl, the embedded spreadsheet you see here was meant to look at seasonal changes in the U.S. automotive marketplace. You, however, can look at it with whatever questions you may have and find answers. Monthly sales data (supplied by Automotive News Data Center) can be found for every month over the last ten years. Beyond that, The Good Car Guy has allowed Google Docs formulas to go to work on averages.As you'll see, January is never a good month for selling cars, but you guessed that already. Of greater importance to new car dealerships, May is the best month for selling vehicles. In fact, in three of the last ten years May was the top-selling month. Only in 2008 was January not the lowest volume month, but that January was worse than any of the previous 84 months on the chart. Clearly the middle months of the year are better times to sell cars, but December is moderately decent, despite the Christmas shopping at Apple stores and Target.The best month in the last decade? It wasn't Cash For Clunkers. July 2005 was rockin'. January 2009, on the other hand, was the lowest volume month of the decade. Sales had been spiralling downward, then recovered slightly in December 2008, then plummeted nearly 238,000 units in the first month of Barack Obama's presidency.Januarys, on average, feature about 250,000 fewer sales than the average month. The months of May are almost 160,000 sales better than the average month. It's interesting to look back and see some anomalies which, only at first, seem unexplainable. Remember October 2001? After 9/11, incentives on new vehicles skyrocketed. So did sales. August 2009 presented the aforementioned Cash For Clunkers spike. In September 2008, economic crisis laid hold on the United States like that concussion has Sidney Crosby right now. Every automaker posted a decrease in sales compared with September 2007; Audi fared best with a 5.4% drop. As far as 2010's recovery, it sure wasn't as historically significant as we wish it was. December, 2010's best month, was the eighth-best December of the decade. Average monthly sales in 2010 were 96,589 up on 2008's average but the 12-month average monthly output was 305,723 units below the average month of the decade.It's not all doom and gloom. January 2011 was up 17% over 2009's January and up 25% over January 2008.
Related From GoodCarBadCar.netU.S. New Vehicle Market Size: 2001 - 2010U.S. New Vehicle Market Share By Brand - January 20112010 Year End U.S. Auto Sales Charts & Best Sellers
Links to the Best-Selling Truck lists for 2010 are below. This is a new type of post for GoodCarBadCar.net, one that's long overdue and sure to continue.On a monthly basis, Canadian and U.S. Truck Sales charts won't be displayed together. But as a preview of what's to come, it's interesting to see the strength of the Canadian truck market relative to the size of the overall new vehicle market in Canada's ten provinces and three territories. Take the Ford F-Series as an example. In the U.S. market in 2010, the F-Series formed 4.6% of all sales versus 6.3% of the overall Canadian market. Overall pickup truck sales accounted for 14.1% of all U.S. new vehicle sales in 2010 but an astounding 19.1% of all new vehicle sales in Canada. More fun facts: if Ford Canada can increase F-Series sales by just 2.2% they'll have a 100,000 unit vehicle. If General Motors can find 28,420 conquest sales at the expense of Ford, the Silverado and Sierra will combine to be America's best-seller in 2011. And Mazda Canada dealers can throw themselves a party for beating their Mazda USA partners (who weren't exactly competing) since they sold 254 B-Series pickups for every Mazda truck sold in America.
Imagine General Motors suffering an 82% drop in sales over the course of the last decade. You know what this would do to the U.S. car market? For one thing, it would've meant GM only sold 875,279 vehicles in America in 2010 instead of the 2.2 million the conglomerate actually sold. But, tragically in a purely hypothetical fashion, an 82% decline over the last decade would have placed the city of Detroit in an even worse state of affairs. Through all of this, it's worth noting that the market as a whole has decreased by 33% since the 2001 calendar year.Despite the market's overall decline, the Graph below showcasing Mitsubishi's drastic downfall since 2001, or even 2002, as well as Suzuki's sharp cliff-dive after 2007, doesn't mince facts. In fact, trends and lines and numbers like you see here should cause even the most casual observers to wonder why Mitsubishi and Suzuki maintain a presence in the United States. And how the two Japanese companies maintain a presence.Suzuki sold 11,529 Grand Vitaras in 2002 plus another 27,295 XL-7s. In 2010, there were just 313 Suzuki XL-7 sales and just 4478 Grand Vitaras sold. The heavily-marketed and much talked about Kizashi, an intended rival for America's midsize sedan segment, found only 6138 buyers in 2010. As for Mitsubishi, the company sold 95,287 SUVs in 2003. Galant sales topped 65,000. (Mitsubishi sold 55,683 vehicles in total in 2010.) In varying volumes, Mitsubishi sold nine different models in 2003. Only seven models found buyers in 2010, one of which was the Raider and its nine customers. Galant sales totalled 11,492, down more than 80% since 2003 in what is still a popular segment, a segment which possesses America's two best-selling cars, the 2011 Toyota Camry and 2011 Honda Accord.The second chart below compares Mitsubishi and Suzuki with other Japanese auto brands. Of the 4,475,698 Japanese cars sold in the United States in 2010, more than one-third were Toyotas; approximately one-quarter were Hondas. Mitsubishi's market share - and remember, this is just among Japanese vehicle sales - was 1.2%; Suzuki's just 0.5%. On the market as a whole, Suzuki's market share was as high as 0.6% in 2007 but stands at just 0.2% at the end of 2010. Mitsubishi possessed 2% of the whole U.S. new vehicle market in 2002 but held just 0.5% in 2010.The 2010 Suzuki Kizashi appeared to be a signal that the famous motorcycle manufacturer wasn't giving up on the North American automobile marketplace. Of course, observers and analysts wonder if the Kizashi's failure has caused Suzuki to at least consider throwing in the towel. Mitsubishi, on the other hand, wants to start assembling more vehicles at its Illinois plant in 2012 or 2013. That doesn't sound like surrender. For a little perspective on Mitsubishi, consider the prices of its least and most-expensive cars. The 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer has a base price of $15,195, the 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution starts at $33,995. In between these two Lancer variants are a midsize SUV, a small SUV, an urban-runabout SUV with basically the same name as the small SUV, an ugly convertible and its ugly coupe twin, a midsize sedan, and a Lancer-based hatchback. Suzuki waters are not unmuddied. There's a Nissan Frontier-based pickup truck, the Equator. The Grand Vitara is a ladder-frame unibody competitor for America's best-selling utility vehicle, the Honda CR-V. The $13,499 2011 Suzuki SX4, particularly as the $16,999 SX4 Crossover variant, is a rebadged Fiat Sedici. Yep, the Fiat that now runs Chrysler. And then there's the aforementioned Kizashi, a handsome sedan wearing the badge of a brand that's never been able to remotely succeed in marketing midsize sedans to Americans before.Is there hope for Mitsubishi and/or Suzuki? Check out the forward-thinking Mitsubishi i and the not-for-North America Suzuki Swift Sport as evidence that these two companies, or at least departments within these companies, have a clue.Related From GoodCarBadCar.netU.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2010 Year EndNew Vehicle Market Share By Brand In America - 2010 Year EndHyundai USA Market Share Growth: 1999-2010The 15 Worst-Selling Vehicles In America - 2010 Year End
During previous instances in which The Good Car Guy found the Worst Selling Cars in America or Canada, even when configuring lists for Sympatico Autos, there's been a host of ground rules. Foremost among those rules was the absence of luxury-branded vehicles. Luxury cars are by their very nature intended to sell in lower volumes. Punishing them for this is petty. Next up for exclusion were SUVs, trucks, crossovers, and minivans. This time, that rule has been forgotten. Finally, defunct brands or models which had already been killed off were obvious slow sellers, so they were ignored.Not this time, however. For the sake of humour and remembrance - and because these vehicles haven't been discussed on GoodCarBadCar.net for ages - the 15 Worst-Selling Cars In America in 2010 include dead or mostly dead vehicles. They are either out of production, soon to be out of production, or not a part of the U.S. new vehicle market any longer. Rank | Car | 2010 | % Drop |
#1 | Pontiac Grand Prix | 7 | -97.4 |
#2 | Mitsubishi Raider | 9 | -99.5 |
#3 | Mazda B-Series | 10 | -98.3 |
#4 | Suzuki Forenza/Reno | 12 | -99.7 |
#5 | Ford Taurus X | 12 | -99.8 |
#6 | Pontiac G3 | 14 | -99.8 |
#7 | Saturn Astra | 25 | -99.6 |
#8 | Chrysler Aspen | 30 | -99.5 |
#9 | Mercury Sable | 37 | -99.4 |
#10 | Pontiac Torrent | 68 | -99.3 |
#11 | Chevrolet Uplander | 76 | -95.7 |
#12 | GMC Envoy | 84 | -98.3 |
#13 | Honda S2000 | 85 | -89.3 |
#14 | Pontiac G5 | 86 | -99.3 |
#15 | Pontiac Vibe | 97 | -99.7 |
Curiously, Mazda Canada has held on to the B-Series... for now. (Its donor vehicle, the Ford Ranger, is not long for this world.) B-Series sales were up 55% in 2010 to 2545. Speaking of Ford, the Taurus X evolved from the Freestyle. Certainly different in styling, the Freestyle/Taurus X's successor, the Ford Flex, isn't totally unlike its predecessors and doesn't sell much better, either. Mercury, Pontiac, and Saturn are all inoperative. The Honda S2000 is sadly no longer a part of Honda's fleet, let's fondly remember it's sweet shifter and screaming 4-cylinder. General Motors doesn't play the minivan game, so the Uplander is gone. The GMC Acadia has been a successful replacement for the GMC Envoy. You could say the GMC Terrain has been a more-than-adequate stand-in for the Pontiac Torrent. Could the Aspen ever return? It seems unlikely, but the name of its platform-mate, Dodge Durango, is returning on an all-new platform. Does anybody even know what the Suzuki Forenza or Reno was? And the Mitsubishi Raider? Sorry Mitsu, Americans buy F-150s, Silverados, Sierras, Rams, and a few Tacomas. Not much else.Related From GoodCarBadCar.netTop 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - 2011 Year EndTop 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - March 2010Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - 2010 Year EndTop 5 Best-Selling Trucks In America - 2010 Year EndU.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2010 Year End
You already know Korea's autombile manufacturing industry is stronger than ever. You heard that the 2011 Hyundai Sonata was one of America's best-selling cars in 2010. You recently read about the Hyundai Genesis becoming America's 17th most-popular luxury car. A simple windshield survey will tell you the 2011 Kia Sorento is a hit - and GoodCarBadCar.net confirms it. And as a prelude to 2011, December 2010 had the all-new and very handsome 2011 Hyundai Elantra as one of America's ten top-selling cars.Then yesterday GoodCarBadCar.net's audience scanned a couple Graphs displaying Hyundai's ability to grow their sales in the United States even when the market shrinks. And this market share pie chart from January 5th said plenty about Korea's strong standing in the U.S. marketplace, right? Well, yeah, it was pretty clear. But the chart below, yes that's the one, says more about Hyundai's growth in America than any chart GoodCarBadCar.net has ever displayed.Starting in 1999 when Hyundai sold one out of every hundred new cars registered in America, to 2001 when Hyundai doubled its market share in just two years, to 2009 when the company's market share more than doubled, Hyundai is now parked at 4.6% of the overall U.S. automobile market. Parked? That's probably far too strong a word. Based on trends over the last twelve years, if Hyundai doesn't increase its U.S. market share, that'd be a colossal disappointment, particularly given the advent of a new Elantra, the terrific 2012 Hyundai Accent Autoguide.com covered yesterday, and the sporty 2012 Hyundai Veloster revealed in Detroit.While we're on the subject of U.S. auto-selling market share, there are nine other significant swings from 2010, as contrasted with the company's 2009 numbers, posted below the Hyundai chart.Ford: up to 15.1% from 13.8%Chevrolet: up to 13.5% from 12.8%Toyota: down to 12.8% from 14.3%Honda: down to 9.5% from 10%Nissan: up to 6.9% from 6.6%GMC: up to 2.9% from 2.4%Jeep: up to 2.5% from 2.2%Scion: down to 0.4% from 0.6%Suzuki: down to 0.2% from 0.4%Related From GoodCarBadCar.netHyundai USA Sales Figures & Percentage Growth In 2010Hyundai Santa Fe 2.4 GL DrivenU.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2010 Year End
The charts below speak for themselves. Rather than go into detail explaining the data found therein, I'll just briefly explain what you're looking at.In the first Graph, the red line shows the year-over-year monthly percentage increases and decreases in sales for Hyundai's U.S. operations. The blue line - in contrast to Hyundai USA - shows the overall market's percentage increases or decreases. Remember, for both charts, spikes in August of 2009 and declines in August of 2010 are directly related to the market inflation imposed by Cash For Clunkers and the correction of that same thing one year later.In the lower Graph, you'll find what you need to help understand the first chart, with a bit of perspective from 2008. This is where overall monthly volume is reflected in a line which either climbs or slips, but the contrast is more relevant on a north-south-by-month scanning than one which simply traces the line. After all, the whole market rises and falls depending on whether or not we're in car-buying season.For the record, the U.S. new vehicle market was 11,590,274 vehicles strong in 2010, according to the Automotive News Data Center. 10,431,510 new vehicles were sold in 2009. 13,247,431 new vehicles were sold in the United States in 2008. Hyundai USA sold 401,742 vehicles in 2008, 435,064 in 2009, and 538,228 in 2010. As you can easily calculate, when the market declined in 2009, Hyundai sales increased and the company's market share went from 3% to 4.2% before increasing another four-tenths of a percentage point in 2010. It's almost a sure thing that Hyundai will increase sales in 2011; the market should increase overall. Will Hyundai be able to continue outpacing the overall market? Perhaps that isn't certain, but Hyundai stands a chance given their new product portfolio which includes the 2011 Hyundai Elantra and 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid; a lineup which will soon include the 2012 Hyundai Veloster and 2012 Hyundai Accent. And there's more, the low-volume 2011 Hyundai Equus helps, as does the Hyundai Sonata 2.0T. And Kia, Hyundai's underling? Kia USA sales were up 18.7% in 2010 while the pair's combined market share stood at 7.7% for the calendar year.Related From GoodCarBadCar.netHyundai USA Market Share Growth 1999-2010U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2010 Year EndU.S. New Vehicle Market Share By Brand - 2010 Year End2010 Hyundai Santa Fe 2.4 GL Driven
Leading the way with six models in America's list of the Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles in 2010, Mercedes-Benz appears just a tad bit more dominant than they really were last year. Lexus was America's best-selling luxury brand. And while some of the Sales Stats you see below utilize some fairly big numbers, only the Lexus RX and BMW 3-Series stand out as vehicles which can compete on a level not unlike that of America's true best-selling vehicles. Even then, for every 3-Series BMW sold in the United States in 2010 Toyota sold more than three Camrys.Setting aside overall volume for a moment, let's talk about eligibility. The Hyundai Genesis' inclusion here is due to the sedan's status as a $33,000 premium car, certainly not the company's value-minded mainstream badge. That said, in Canada at least, the Genesis Coupe far out-sells the regular Genesis sedan. So how many of Hyundai's 29,122 Genesis sales in 2010 were of the true luxury variety? Here's another way of looking at it: boot the Genesis off this list of America's most popular luxury cars and insert the BMW 1-Series and its 13,132 sales, up 18.3% from 2009. Does the Cadillac DTS's presence on this list just make you feel icky, like you sprayed on too much tan in Del Boca Vista? Well, Chevrolet Corvette sales totalled 12,624 in 2010. Can't stand the thought of a Chevrolet being counted as a luxury car? Land Rover Range Rover Sport sales rose 8.7% to 12,347 in 2010. Lexus LS sales weren't far behind at 12,275, nor were sales of the BMW 7-Series at 12,253. 18 of the vehicles below are cars in the traditional sense. The other twelve take on the form of either an SUV or crossover, or in the case of the Cadillac Escalade EXT (7.7% of total Escalade sales), an SUV with a truck bed. 25 out of the 30 vehicles in the list of luxury players improved on their 2009 sales totals. Twelve vehicles on the list are German creations; ten are Japanese; one is Korean; the other eight are Detroit iron.Here are the Top 10 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America in 2010. Rank | Luxury Vehicle | 2010 | 2009 |
#1 | BMW 3-Series
| 100,910 | 90,960 |
#2 | Lexus RX | 95,970 | 93,379 |
#3 | Mercedes-Benz E-Class | 60,922 | 43,072 |
#4 | Mercedes-Benz C-Class | 58,785 | 52,427 |
#5 | Infiniti G | 58,143 | 47,174 |
#6 | Cadillac SRX | 51,094 | 20,237 |
#7 | Lexus ES | 48,652 | 48,485 |
#8 | Acura MDX | 47,210 | 31,178 |
#9 | Cadillac CTS | 45,656 | 38,817 |
#10 | BMW 5-Series | 39,488 | 40,109 |
#11 | BMW X5 | 35,776 | 27,071 |
#12 | Audi A4 | 34,672 | 37,070 |
#13 | Lexus IS | 34,129 | 38,077 |
#14 | Acura TL | 34,049 | 33,620 |
#15 | Acura TSX | 32,076 | 28,650 |
#16 | Mercedes-Benz M-Class | 29,698 | 25,799 |
#17 | Hyundai Genesis | 29,122 | 21,889 |
#18 | Cadillac Escalade | 26,874 | 25,884 |
#19 | Audi Q5 | 23,518 | 13,790 |
#20 | Lincoln MKZ | 22,535 | 22,081 |
#21 | Lincoln MKX | 21,932 | 21,433 |
#22 | Mercedes-Benz GLK | 20,946 | 21,944 |
#23 | Mercedes-Benz GL-Class | 19,943 | 15,012 |
#24 | Cadillac DTS | 18,640 | 17,330 |
#25 | Lexus GX | 16,450 | 6235 |
#26 | Audi A5 | 16,379 | 9800 |
#27 | Acura RDX | 14,975 | 10,153 |
#28 | Infiniti M | 14,618 | 8501 |
#29 | Lincoln MKS | 14,417 | 17,174 |
#30 | Mercedes-Benz S-Class | 13,608 | 11,199 |
Related From GoodCarBadCar.netTop 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - 2011 Year EndTop 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - January 2011Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In America - 2010 Year EndTop 10 Best-Selling SUVs In America - 2010 Year EndTop 5 Best-Selling Trucks In America - 2010 Year EndU.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2010 Year EndTop 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In Canada - 2010 Year End
Over the last few years, automobile manufacturers and their dealers have absorbed the U.S. economy's secondary whiplash after a massive housing and banking crisis crippled the system. This is clearly manifested in the first Graph below, one which shows the market falling from decade highs in 2001 and 2005 to a decade low in 2009 before slight recovery took place in 2010. When glancing at the lack of red in GoodCarBadCar.net's monthly U.S. Auto Sales By Brand post, one would be inclined to believe that automakers had recovered. But that would be to ignore the fact that just about anything looks good after a garbage year.In this second chart, passenger car sales are contrasted with light truck sales. Described as a percentage of the overall market, cars have obviously become the more likely purchase in the last three years, but not by a significant measure. Remember, "light trucks" isn't just a reference to pickups like the 2011 Ford F-150 or 2011 Dodge Ram but to vehicles like the new 2011 Ford Explorer and minivans like the revamped 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan.
Related From GoodCarBadCar.netU.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2010 Year EndU.S. New Vehicle Market Share By Brand - 2010 Year EndTop 10 Best-Selling Cars In America - 2010 Year EndCanada New Vehicle Market Size: 2001-2010
What happened to the fondness SUV buyers once held for the Nissan Xterra? Get this: Xterra sales, parked at 20,523 on New Year's Eve, were up 24.7% in 2010.... up. Up to 20,523? For every Xterra sold, Nissan sold almost five Rogues and more than two-and-a-half Muranos. Nissan sold 72,447 Xterras in 2005.While bashing the Xterra's lack of success (and consumers' collective unwillingness to give traditional SUVs a chance), we should talk about the Toyota 4Runner. Reverting back to its original mission (a bit), the 2010 Toyota 4Runner looked like the type of vehicle that could restore dignity to the badge, but I'm not sure anyone expected Toyota to post a 136% increase in 4Runner sales in 2010. How 'bout the Jeep Wrangler - things have tailed off in the end of the year a little, but Wrangler sales were up 15% in 2010. For some of that Xterra perspective, 4Runner sales in 2005 were 103,830; Wrangler sales barely topped 79,000.It's a little early to be positing lasting theories on the mini-battle between the 2011 Nissan Juke and 2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport. Nevertheless, the Juke beat the Outlander Sport by a little less than 3-to-1 in December and better than 5-to-1 during the short period they were on sale at the end of 2010. A more pertinent comparison pits the Kia Sorento against the Hyundai Santa Fe. Kia won that battle over the parent company by 32,305 sales. Here's another race few paid any attention to from the third Graph below: American brands sold 598,925 smallerish SUVs and crossovers in 2010; Japanese brands sold 633,165.Related From GoodCarBadCar.netSmall, Midsize & Large SUV Sales In America - December 2011 And 2011 Year EndSmall, Midsize & Large SUV Sales In America - December 2010Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In America - 2010 Year EndAmerican New Vehicle Market Share By Brand - 2010 Year EndSmall, Large, Midsize SUV U.S. Sales Charts - January 2011
From a V6 or V8-engined seven-seater to a more compact, less-expensive, and hopefully more fuel-efficient 5-seater, the evolution of the old Cadillac crossover into the 2010 Cadillac SRX was met with mixed reviews but stunning sales figures. Up 152% from 2009 levels, SRX sales topped the Audi Q5 by more than 27,000 units and smoked its lone potential domestic rival by more than 29,000 units. It couldn't be any more official: America loves the Cadillac SRX.And if America loves the Cadillac SRX, what does that say about the Lexus RX? Though sales increased by only 2.6%, the RX was ridiculously popular last year, too. Easily the most popular model at Toyota's luxury division, the Lexus RX came close to out-selling the whole Audi brand by itself and did indeed out-sell Lincoln and Volvo.Less popular in 2010 were luxury utility vehicles like the overweight BMW X6, the nasally-challenged Lincoln MKT, and the dreadful Acura ZDX. All are relatively new-to-the-market vehicles, but the three Bad 8 losers each lost respective battles with the Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7, and Infiniti FX.2010 wasn't the best and brightest year for auto sales. Compared with 2009, however, luxury SUV and crossover sales were pleasantly voluminous, a fact which sends clear signals regarding a strong 2011.Related From GoodCarBadCar.netSmall Luxury SUV & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - 2011 Year EndSmall Luxury SUV & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - December 2010Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In America - 2010 Year EndLarge Luxury SUV Sales In America - 2010 Year EndSmall Luxury & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - January 2011
Very few vehicle segments covered by The Good Car Guy manifest a high percentage of vehicles as potential winners month after month. Out of the many mainstream midsize car nameplates, only two or three stand a chance of conquering the category in January 2011. In the vast small SUV segment, it's unlikely that any vehicle other than the Honda CR-V, Ford Escape, or Chevrolet Equinox will be the top seller. Yet in the large luxury car arena, half the competitors are sought after with a measure of equality. By the end of 2010, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class had out-sold the Lexus LS, but only by 793 units. Meanwhile, the lead the Lexus held over the BMW was even narrower at just 22 sales. The relatively new-to-market Porsche Panamera, an ugly but apparently desirable beast, was 4512 sales behind the BMW; the Jaguar XJ only 3463 sales behind the Porsche.Of course, finding 3463 more buyers in this category isn't a Toyota Camry-like experience. Toyota sold an average of 1156 Camrys per selling day in December 2010. There were only 195 large luxury cars sold on each selling day in December. So yeah, the Jaguar XJ and Porsche Panamera weren't all that close. On the other hand, you should take note of the gains made by the slower-selling trio of this bunch. Thanks to the introduction of the 2011 Audi A8, Audi sales in this category were up 378% in December. Jaguar XJ sales jumped 268% in 2010. Panamera sales are still on the rise, too, up 34% in December. (Year-over-year comparisons for all of 2010 would be irrelevant as the Panamera wasn't on sale in all of 2009.) The 7-Series, S-Class, and Lexus LS all improved on 2009 sales levels, also.Large luxury sport-utility vehicles fared much better in 2010 than in 2009, as well. 82,435 large luxury SUVs were sold in 2010, up from 69,244 in 2009. With the regular Escalade, stretched Escalade ESV, and Chevrolet Avalanche-based Escalade EXT, Cadillac's jumbo luxo sport-ute onslaught reveals itself with a 33% slice of the market. Mercedes-Benz owns more than a quarter of the market. In 2009, the Infiniti QX56 ate 9.3% of the pie. The all-new $57,850 2011 Infiniti QX56 helped grow that to 14.5%. At $60,950, the 2011 Mercedes-Benz GL350 BlueTec is the least-expensive GL version. $61,885 gets you into a 2011 Cadillac Escalade EXT.Related From GoodCarBadCar.netLarge Luxury Car & Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - 2011 Year EndLarge Luxury Car Sales & Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - December 2010Large Luxury Car & Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - January 2011U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2010 Year EndSmall & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - 2010 Year EndSmall Luxury & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - 2010 Year End
