Showing posts with label US May 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US May 2011. Show all posts
Monday, August 29, 2011

Charting U.S. Sales Declines For Toyota and Honda In 2011

2012 Toyota Camry Model Range
Honda and Toyota sales fell 28.5% and 22.8%, respectively, in July 2011. It's not as though the U.S. auto market is in prime operating condition, but America's two favourite Japanese automakers aren't struggling to sell vehicles because of economic concerns in the United States.

Ever since Japan's March 11 Tōhoku earthquake, corporations of all kinds have faced the same kind of problems ordinary Japanese citizens have encountered. Getting life, or production, back to normal in the wake of the post-quake tsunami and evacuations which can be traced back to a nuclear disaster isn't a task for the fainthearted.

Year-to-date, through seven months of 2011, Toyota is down 6.2% and Honda is down 2.4%. (Toyota's premium Lexus brand is off 18.6%. Toyota's youth-oriented Scion brand is up 17.4%. Honda's premium division, Acura, is down 5.5%.) The first quarter wasn't the problem. It was the second quarter and the beginning of the third quarter, a period in which supply at Toyota and Honda dealerships was scarce, which really harmed their ability to report normal sales levels. How can a company report level or increasing sales when they don't have cars to sell?

It's not as though Toyota and Honda are the only ones struggling to succeed during the last few months. Japan's prime minister just resigned, for example. Nevertheless, it's fair to say that the troubles faced by Toyota and Honda over the last three months have provided an opportunity for other automakers to grab market share, just as Prime Minister Kan's resignation opens the door for Yoshihiko Noda. Evidence of that fact is obvious. Rather than their standing amongst global rivals, what Toyota and Honda really want to see recover are the sales volumes of years past. 

The charts below imagine falling sales as if falling sales are coloured columns which rise and... er, fall. You'll see five different Toyotas, four different Hondas, and the Acura division as a whole. May 2009, May 2010, and May 2011 can be seen in blue, chronologically; moving from the left to right. June is red. July is green.

The declines are obvious. If the numbers from Best Seller lists and U.S. Auto Sales By Brand posts weren't grabbing you, these charts will go a long way to convincing you that supply issues at Toyota and Honda dealerships over the last three months or so have utterly crushed the autumn vacation dreams of many salesmen. That news shouldn't be taken lightly. Automotive News says August won't be much better.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Ford Motor Company Sales In America - May 2011

Sales of Ford Motor Company vehicles totalled more than those of any other automobile manufacturer in May 2011... except for General Motors. GM's May sales have already been completely covered in four separate charts. Now FMC's sales figures - and Ford's in particular, America's most popular individual brand - are shown with their respective share of the brand's volume in the charts below.

Lincoln's pitiful performance in May is more clearly understood once you realize only 3.9% of all Ford Motor Company sales occurred in the luxury brand's showrooms. The MKS, MKT, and Navigator posted year-over-year declines. Lincoln was America's seventh-most-popular premium automotive brand in May as sales fell 4.6% to 7399.

FMC's own Blue Oval brand had seven models which out-sold the whole Lincoln brand last month. Ford's car division found its biggest percentage boost in the Focus as the 2012 model helped deliver a 31.7% increase. The Ford Explorer was up 135%. Ford Mustang sales plunged 35.4%; Ford Edge sales dropped 30.6%.

The Ford brand sold 184,130 vehicles, up 5.1%. Ford Motor Company as a whole was down 0.25%. Take Mercury's 9128 May 2010 sales out of the equation and Ford/Lincoln - FMC's two current brands - were up a combined 4.7%. To keep Lincoln from becoming the next Mercury, an extinguished brand, Ford is going to spend $1,000,000,000 to reinvigorate their luxury division.

General Motors Sales In America - May 2011

2012 Chevrolet Sonic Orange
No automobile manufacturing conglomeration sold more new vehicles in the United States in May 2011 than General Motors. In the first five months of 2011 General Motors sold 1,046,275 automobiles in the United States. That's up 18.5% from the same period in 2010.

May sales, however, were down, at least at Cadillac and Chevrolet. That's not to say there wasn't reason to celebrate at the Bow Tie division. The Chevrolet Malibu was the best-selling car in America last month. But sales of the dying DTS are tailing off; Escalade sales were down; and the SRX fell slightly, hindering chances for growth at Cadillac where the CTS was up 22.9%. And back at Chevrolet, Silverado sales fell by 5281 units. Sales of other big Chevys - the Avalanche, Tahoe, Traverse, Suburban, and Express - were all in decline, as well. If Chevrolet was simply a car division, we would be saying sales rose 5.8%.

For a change, GoodCarBadCar.net is publishing the full model-by-model breakdown of every GM vehicle on sale today. Each pie chart you see below can be clicked upon for a larger review.

Remember, wrapped up in GM's 1% year-over-year drop were the May 2010 sales of 1517 Hummers, Pontiacs, and Saturns. Discount those brands and GM's core four - Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC - were down to 221,192 from 221,893, a neglible 0.3% decline in a market which dropped 3.7% from May 2010.
Thursday, June 23, 2011

Auto Sales By Segment In The USA And Canada - May 2011

Empty Steele Fiat Showroom
The pickup truck segment made up a smaller portion of the overall U.S. new vehicle market in May 2011 as minivans remained equal and cars also were responsible for a smaller slice of the pie. Indeed, SUV/CUV/Crossovers held 29.1% of the overall U.S. automobile market, up from 28.4% in April.

America's best-selling utility vehicle was the Ford Escape, sales of which were up 8.9%. Of course, the majority of new vehicle buyers opted for traditional passenger cars, the most popular of which were midsizers from Chevrolet, Nissan, Ford, and Hyundai. And though truck sales shrunk in terms of their effect on the whole market, America's best-selling vehicle line was still the Ford F-Series, despite a 15%  sales tumble.
US Auto Sales Market Share By Segment May 2011
Cars are more popular than trucks or SUVs in Canada, too, but the margin is much narrower. In fact, that margin was narrower in May than it was in April when cars held 48.2% of the overall Canadian new vehicle market.

SUV/CUV/Crossover sales grabbed 28.7% of all Canadian auto sales; that's up from 28.2% in the previous month. Minivans grew their portion; truck sales shrunk slightly as a percentage of all new vehicle sales. Canada's best-selling car in May was the Hyundai Elantra. The best-selling SUV was the same as America's: the Ford Escape. Ford's F-Series was Canada's best-selling truck. The market share of the country's 20 best-selling vehicles is explored in this chart
Canada Auto Sales Market Share By Segment May 2011

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Auto Sales By Segment In The USA & Canada - April 2011
Auto Sales Stats In America - May 2011
Auto Sales Stats In Canada - May 2011

Mini USA Sales In May 2011 - The Countryman Is Necessary

2011 Mini Countryman White Profile
BMW, America's most popular luxury auto brand in May, has been selling Mini brand cars in the United States since the 2002 model year. Initially, Mini sales were much higher than BMW forecast; the German executives hadn't realized just how easily a retro British hatchback could capture attention in the U.S.A. Mini sales were then boosted by the introduction of the less practical Convertible and more practical Clubman in later years. 

Then, just a few months ago, Mini began offering the Countryman for sale, a few days before The Good Car Guy drove it. It's hard to call the Countryman an SUV, not just because that term has increasingly been replaced by relatively meaningless crossover designation, or simply CUV. Calling the Countryman a crossover or CUV is a stretch, too. But it is a 4-door Mini with overtly rugged styling and a bigger cabin. Whatever you call it, it's now hugely important to BMW's Mini brand.

That fact becomes more obvious when studying the first chart below. In May, the Countryman accounted for about three out of every ten Mini sales. That's more than the Mini Convertible and Mini Clubman combined. The second chart tells the story of the first five months of 2011 wherein Countryman sales started with a gradual ascent as supply came on stream. By May 31st, 27.3% of all new Minis in the USA were Countrymen/Countrymans.

2012 Mini Coupe White ProfileDon't go confusing the Countryman with the Honda CR-V or even the Volkswagen Tiguan. VW, for instance, sold nearly twice as many Tiguans as Mini sold Countrymen/Countrymans in May. And for every Mini Countryman sold, Honda sold 9.5 CR-Vs last month, and it was a bad month for the CR-V.

But that's beside the point. Mini doesn't introduce models intending to take over mass market segments. Anyhow, we're studying the Countryman's impact on the Mini fleet. This leads us to discover that, without the Countryman in May, Mini would've been down 3.4%. So far this year, the Countryman has helped Mini post an 18.7% improvement. But without the Countryman, Mini's year-over-year jump is just 6.3%, not nearly as healthy as the overall new vehicle market's 14% improvement. 

Perhaps more stressful to BMW's Mini executives is the declining interest in the Convertible and Clubman. In 2011, sales of the Mini droptop are down 26.2% (May was even worse at -40.5%) and the stretched Mini is off 19.4% (again, May was worse at 27.5%). Fortunately, the Countryman is here and sales of the regular Cooper and Cooper S Hardtop hatch are up 25.6% through five months. Also, the 2012 Mini Coupe isn't far off. That'll further assist Mini in its quest for niche market domination over Scion and Fiat.
Mini USA Sales Chart May 2011
Mini Cooper USA Sales Chart 2011 Year To Date
Mini is now a vital part of the BMW family. In terms of overall volume, the Mini brand did more for BMW USA in May than any other product line save for the 3-Series. More than two in every ten BMW USA sales in 2011 have been Minis of one variety or another, as you'll see in the chart below. BMW sold 5604 SAVs in May, admittedly more expensive vehicles than what you see on the Mini side of the showroom. But the Mini family topped the BMW SAV family, not an easy task, regardless of their respective price points.

The BMW Group's May 2011 market share in the United States was 2.5%. By itself, Mini's market share last month was 0.55%, some way better than the 0.37% Mini owned in Canada in May. However, it's worth mentioning that the Mini Countryman has an in-showroom rival in Canada that's not present in neighbouring America: the X1. Mini found 178 Canadian Countryman buyers last month; BMW sold 298 X1s. Also, sales of the rest of Mini's fleet were down 25.3% in Canada, but the brand was up 10.2% because of the Countryman's introduction.
BMW Mini USA Sales Chart 2011

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - May 2011
U.S. New Vehicle Market Share By Brand - May 2011
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - May 2011
2011 Mini Countryman Driven
Monday, June 13, 2011

Small Luxury SUV Sales And Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - May 2011

Lexus RX sales plummeted 36% in May 2011 yet the RX was still America's best-selling luxury utility vehicle and the nation's second-ranked luxury vehicle overall. Priced $3855 above the RX350 while offering an extra row of seats, the Acura MDX is listed in the same chart for arbitrary reasons. MDX sales fell 6% last month but remained higher than any competitor's except the RX.

The German competition wasn't really able to take advantage of any crisis felt by Japanese automakers. BMW X5 sales rose by only 23 units, Mercedes-Benz M-Class sales fell 15%, and the Audi Q7's gains amounted to a sliver compared to the usual Lexus/Acura output. Sales of the $44,450 2011 Volkswagen Touareg jumped 107% but remained low in contrast to popular players in the segment.
Midsize Luxury SUV Sales Chart May 2011 USA
Infiniti EX35 sales dropped 36% and Acura RDX sales fell 31% in May, declines which were worse than those felt by their overall brands. Of the 13,757 vehicle sales shown in what GoodCarBadCar.net terms the Small Luxury SUV chart below, just under 50% were German-designed products - the BMW X3, Audi Q5, and Mercedes-Benz GLK. 

Cadillac SRX sales dropped from 4081 at this time last year to 3910 in May 2011. SRX sales are up 18% year-to-date. The MKX, Lincoln's domestic competitor for the SRX, was up 1.7% to 1734 in May. It can be seen in the chart above. The MKX's base price is nearly $5000 more than the Cadillac's.
Small Luxury SUV Sales Chart May 2011 USA

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Small & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - May 2012
Small Luxury SUV & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - June 2011
Small Luxury SUV & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - April 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - May 2011
Luxury Auto Brand Market Share In America - May 2011
Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - May 2011

Large Luxury Car Sales And Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - May 2011

2011 BMW 750i White Sedan
4513 large luxury sedans were sold in the United States in May. 31% of them were BMWs. 7-Series sales more than doubled from May 2010's total and nearly doubled April 2011's total, as well. At the same time, S-Class Benz sales tumbled more than 200 units, Porsche Panamera sales barely improved, and Lexus LS sales dropped 38%. 

Formerly considered ultra-niche, the Audi A8 continues to post gigantic year-over-year increases. It was 662% on the plus side in May 2011. And because of its 1170% improvement, the Jaguar XJ's market share in the segment improved to 12.4% last month.
Large Luxury Car Sales Chart May 2011 USA
As usual, the most popular large luxury sport-utility vehicles were more popular than the most popular large luxury cars. In other words, the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class and Cadillac Escalade SUVs out-performed the BMW 7-Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class in May. Benz GL sales rose 8.6%. The regular wheelbase Escalade was down, but the EXT (compared with other trucks, without other 'Slades) and ESV helped with small improvements. 

In what should be a challenging market in these times of high fuel prices and recessionary tendencies, the Lexus LX570, Lincoln Navigator, and Toyota Land Cruiser reported declining sales. But the Infiniti QX56, Mercedes G550/G55 AMG tandem, and the Land Rover Range Rover all sold more frequently this May than last.
Large Luxury SUV Sales Chart May 2011 USA

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Large Luxury Car & Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - May 2012
Large Luxury Car & Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - June 2011
Large Luxury Car & Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - April 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - May 2011
Luxury Auto Brand Market Share In America - May 2011
Small/Entry Luxury Car & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - May 2011
Small Luxury SUV & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - May 2011

Small Luxury Car Sales And Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - May 2011

Apparently Audi dealers can lure away 5-Series and E-Class customers, so long as they've got a hatchback to offer.

Truthfully, so Audi isn't really luring away many 5er and leader-of-the-pack Benz clients, at least not yet, not in the United States. But as potential Audi A6 buyers wait for the new model to come on stream and Audi sees A6 sales fall 40%, the new Audi A7 more than picks up the slack. Last year at this time there was no A7 and Audi midsize sales reached 784. This year, with an old A6 and the new A7 hatchback, Audi midsize sales hit 1282. The A7 was a big part of Audi's overall 13.7% sales improvement in May 2011, although the A8 added another 430 new units to the tally and the A3, TT, and R8 also helped out with increases.

However, Audi is not nearly as great a force in the U.S. as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. 5-Series sales jumped 83.5% to 4201. E-Class sales rose 5% to 5751.
Midsize Luxury Car Sales Chart USA May 2011
After looking at the Graph below you'll think BMW and Mercedes-Benz's luxury market dominance is nearly unbelievable. North of the border in Canada, May results just came in and show the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class as two of the country's 20 best-selling cars. Admittedly, they were 19th and 20th, but that's a marked difference from the States where the 3-Series makes only an odd appearance.

Of course, the huge declines at Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti relate almost exclusively to the crisis which began after the March 11th Tōhoku quake. Acura TSX sales, for example, were down 37.6% in May. That's with a new wagon version to sell in addition to the sedan. Acura sold 194 TSX Sport Wagons. In case you're interested - because the market certainly isn't - TSX Sport Wagon sales through the first five months of 2011 stand at 1535. The 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon costs $970 more than the 2011 Honda Accord Crosstour, a Bad 8 stalwart, but only sold once for every six Crosstour sales last month. Crosstour sales were down 48%.
Small Luxury Car Sales Chart USA May 2011

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Midsize & Small/Entry Luxury Car Sales In America - May 2012
Small Luxury Car & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - June 2011
Entry Luxury Car & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - April 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Cars In America - May 2011
Luxury Auto Brand Market Share In America - May 2011
Large Luxury Car Sales In America - May 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011

Sporty Car Sales And Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - May 2011

Studying sports car sales in America, or any market for that matter, is like tracking the stock market pre and post-recession. Fluctuations are the name of the game. While that's not to say there isn't any consistency (three American muscle cars almost always dominate), sales do rise and fall with the tides.

So at first glance the Honda CR-Z's volume appears relatively healthy. Then you realize that - although the CR-Z more than doubled up on the Mazda MX-5 Miata and ventured close to the Volkswagen GTI - it wasn't as popular as the Mitsubishi Eclipse and barely saw off the Chevrolet Corvette. Sales of the $49,045-$110,300 Chevy were down in May but are up 13% year-to-date. Honda CR-Z sales, by the way, were at 1819 in April, 1685 in March, 1091 in February, and 894 in January.
Audi sports car sales were certainly healthy in May 2011. Sales of the still-gorgeous TT were up 30.2% while sales of the overpowering R8 jumped 135.7%.

Other expensive sports cars joining the R8 in the positive column were BMW's 6-Series (up 64.1%), the Nissan GT-R (up 48.3%), and the Porsche 911 (up 13.5%). Cadillac sold a single XLR in May. And get this, Lexus sold a single SC430.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Sporty Car & Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - May 2012
Sporty Car & Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - June 2011
Sporty Car & Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - April 2011
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Luxury Auto Brand Market Share In America - May 2011
New Vehicle Market Share By Brand In America - May 2011

Small SUV Sales, Midsize SUV Sales, Large SUV Sales In America - May 2011

Jeep Compass: +92% In May
Chevrolet Suburban sales, down. Chevrolet Tahoe sales, down. Ford Expedition sales, down. GMC Yukon sales, down. GMC Yukon XL sales, down. Kia Borrego sales, barely registering. Nissan Armada sales, down. Toyota Sequoia sales, down.

That's an oversimplified analysis but it's not inaccurate by any means. Large sport-utility vehicle volume remains high... in a sense. The eight vehicles mentioned above all posted year-over-year declines in May 2011 yet still managed to combine for 19,552 sales. That's an eight-vehicle range which produced greater monthly volume than all but 14 brands. Demand, however, is clearly on the downswing. In May 2010, sales of these same eight mainstream large SUVs totalled 26,890.
If new SUV buyers are flocking away from the biggest sport-utes on sale to the tune of a 27.3% drop, some midsize utility vehicles are bound to be beneficiaries. Obviously these sizing terms are loosely-defined - the Buick Enclave, Dodge Durango, and Toyota 4Runner aren't the tiniest of midsizers, after all. The Enclave is only a hair shorter than the Chevrolet Tahoe, for one thing. The Durango weighs more than the Kia Borrego. And the 4Runner is more than two inches taller than the Highlander. 

Speaking of those three, Durango sales were up 217,800% in May. Wow. You know why of course - there was no actively marketed 2010 Durango at this time last year. Buick Enclave sales were down 8% in May but are up 11% year-to-date. The story is similar for the 4Runner, down 24% in May but up 4% so far this year. The greatest increase among SUVs listed in the midsize chart below, apart from the dramatic Durango lift, came from the Durango's close relation, the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, sales of which jumped 192% last month. Ford Explorer sales rose 135%. Setting aside the Jeep Commander, Suzuki XL7, Mercury Mountaineer and other dead or dying models, the worse sales decrease was posted by the Chevrolet Traverse, down 38%.

Growth in SUV/crossover sales isn't hard to find if you look at the smallest and least expensive utility vehicles on sale today. The Jeep Compass, Patriot, and Wrangler posted increases in May. Others which achieved the same: Chevrolet Equinox, Ford Escape, GMC Terrain, Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento, Kia Sportage, and Volkswagen Tiguan. Many vehicles of Japanese origin struggled despite the efforts of their parent brands to renew supply after Japan's horrendous March disasters.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Small, Midsize & Large SUV Sales In America - May 2012
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Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In America - May 2011
Small Car, Midsize Car & Large Car Sales In America - May 2011

Small Car Sales, Midsize Car Sales, Large Car Sales In America - May 2011

Suggesting that you take the three auto sales charts below "with a grain of salt" would be misleading. The figures, after all, are true and verified by the automakers themselves. In every auto sales chart The Good Car Guy publishes there's always one or two items we should be aware of that prove auto sales results don't always relate to demand. In the case of the charts below, there are a whole bunch of results which were skewed by poor supply in Japanese brand dealerships.

For example, sales of the Toyota Prius fell off the Best-Selling Cars list and nearly ended up on the Worst-Selling Cars list in May. Thinkest thou that Prius demand, despite fuel prices that are still pretty high, suddenly disappeared? Of course not. There were issues. Those issues will be overcome soon. Toyota Prius sales decreased 44.5% from April to May; the market as a whole fell just 8.5%.

So while giving credit to the Chevrolet Malibu for its dominant best-selling month, we must also remember that it isn't normal for the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord to be the fifth and sixth-ranked midsize cars in the United States. Read more on each segment below their respective charts.
Curious things occurred in the small car segment in May 2011. The Chevrolet Cruze has been popular since Chevrolet introduced the Cobalt replacement. Beating out the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic can't be as satisfying as Chevy would have hoped given Japan's disasters. But beating the 2012 Ford Focus, at the same time the Chevrolet Malibu beat the Ford Fusion to become America's best-selling car, isn't easy. For one thing, Ford offers the Focus in two unique bodystyles, a sedan and 5-door hatchback. You could also make a case for the Focus's superior styling. Cruze sales (including 29 Cobalts) were up 40.6% in May over the Cobalt's May 2010 effort. Focus sales jumped 31.7%.

No small car posted a greater sales increase than the Kia Soul, up 81.9% year-over-year. Obviously the Volkswagen New Beetle's decline was expected. Apart from that VW and the defunct Chrysler PT Cruiser, no small car posted a sales decrease worse than the Hyundai Accent, down 63.5% as Hyundai dealers wait for full stock of the all-new 2012 Accent. Canadian Hyundai dealers sold 643 more Accents than their U.S. counterparts in May.
While we're on the subject of sales increases and decreases, consider the Mazda 6 and it's 53.1% drop. No midsize car fared worse, although the Prius and Toyota Venza were close. Buick Regal sales jumped from 150 in May 2010 to 4247 in May 2011, a 2731% improvement. Sales of the handsome 2011 Kia Optima were up 210%. Deals in Mitsubishi stores must've been terrific: Galant sales rose 166%.

Finally, sales of every mainstream large car slid downwards in year-over-year comparisons. On its last breath, the Cadillac DTS was down 33.9%. The Lincoln Town Car, also a dying breed, was up 9%.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Small, Midsize & Large Car Sales In America - May 2012
Small, Midsize & Large Car Sales In America - June 2011
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U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - May 2011
Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America - May 2011
Small SUV, Midsize SUV & Large SUV Sales In America - May 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Truck Sales And Minivan Sales In America - May 2011

Minivan sales in America fell from 44,556 in April to 40,483 in May 2011, a 9.1% drop in a market which fell 8.3% during the same period. Year-over-year, Chrysler Town & Country sales plummeted 51% (and are down 23% year-to-date) while Dodge Grand Caravan sales grew by 34 units and are up 12% so far this year. 

Not covered in this Minivan Sales chart is the Mercedes-Benz R-Class, sales of which jumped 237% to 873 in May. That made the improved R-Class as popular as the super-boxy 2011 Nissan Quest, sales of which rose 7175%, at least when compared with what was a defunct model in May 2010.

133,725 pickup trucks were sold in the United States in May. The six traditional full-size trucks accounted for 80% of those sales. You can add 1396 units to the total pumped out by full-sizers on behalf of the gargantuan Cadillac Escalade EXT and Chevrolet Avalanche. Of the remaining 20%, the majority of sales came from the Toyota Tacoma and slowly dying Ford Ranger. The Honda Ridgeline, for example, was down 64% to just 672 sales. No truck posted a greater sales increase than the Nissan Frontier, sales of which jumped 25%.
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Truck Sales & Minivan Sales In America - June 2011
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Popular Car Market Share In America - May 2011

Breathe.... Okay, now that you've gotten over the shock of seeing the Ford F-Series as America's best-selling vehicle in America for the month of May 2011, we can get on with things. The big Ford truck family's portion of the overall new vehicle market in the United States rose slightly from April's 3.92% to May's 3.99%. You could say this was helped by falling sales of what are normally the F-Series' closest rivals: the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. 

In April, the Camry and Accord were, as you know, America's second and third-best-selling vehicles. In May, the Camry and Accord fell to 12th and 14th. This also helped the Chevrolet Silverado gain market share overall, rising from 2.53% to 2.68% despite sales which dropped 16%.

15% of America's 20 best-selling vehicles in May were trucks, 20% were utility vehicles, leaving 13 cars to fill in the gaps. Though those figures are identical to April's, the vehicles helping to make up those figures are different. The Toyota RAV4 fell off; the Ford Explorer slid in.

Passenger cars formed 52.9% of the overall market in May, according to the Automotive News Data Center. 11 of the top 20 were Detroit machines in the traditional sense, up from 10 in April. The 20 best-selling vehicles in the United States gained strength, rising from 40.35% of all new vehicle sales in April to 40.55% in May.

Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - May 2011

The Chrysler Town & Country, BMW 1-Series, Toyota Versa, Toyota Prius, Lexus ES, Mazda 6, and Lexus GX all saw their volume cut in half from May 2010 levels. Yet those seven vehicles didn't suffer badly enough to be included in a list of the Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America In May 2011.

We're all well acquainted with the facts. Supply issues stung Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Mazda in May 2011. This resulted in artificially declining sales figures for some models, such as the Prius, that are generally quite popular. Down 51.4% in May, the Prius only missed this Worst Sellers list because sales of the ES, 6, GX, ZDX, and Toyota Yaris fell even harder. The Prius was part of America's Top 20 Best-Selling Cars list just one month ago, although that list is based on total volume, not percentage increases.

Rather than talk about those that missed the list, consider those that did not. Leading the way was the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. Perhaps buyers are holding out for the new SLS AMG Roadster? It's strange to see a vehicle as successful as the SLS AMG fall so suddenly, so let's assume there's a good reason. The CLS and SLK Benzes are both in the midst of generational changes. Overall Mercedes-Benz volume hasn't been hurt by the slow changeover.

Generational changes explain the Hyundai Accent's presence here, as well. Its rival from Toyota, however, is just plain struggling. Yaris sales are off 50% year-to-date. The Acura RL and Lexus GS aren't all that desirable even when Japan hasn't been struck by a handful of industry-affecting disasters. The same could unfortunately be said of the eminently usable Honda Ridgeline. 

Whither the Cadillac STS? Yes, sales of the STS dropped 67.8% in May, but production has ended, so it's time to give the Caddy a break. Bring on the XTS Platinum... please.

Rank
Vehicle
% Drop
May 2011
#1
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
-87.5
21
#2
Lexus HS250h
-83.8
220
#3
Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class
-69.1
38
#4
Honda Ridgeline
-63.7
672
#5
Hyundai Accent
-63.5
1529
#6
Mercedes-Benz SLK-Class
-63.4
63
#7
Acura RL
-61.6
58
#8
Lexus GS
-60.3
306
#9
Toyota Yaris
-59.8
1690
#10
Acura ZDX
-58.0
128

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Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - June 2011
Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America  - April 2011
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U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - May 2011