Sporty Car Sales And Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - December 2011 And 2011 Year End

December 2011 Sports Car Sales Chart
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The S2000, long since cancelled by Honda, found two buyers in the United States in December 2011. Odd, but true. In total, Honda sold five S2000s in 2011. This is fairly irrelevant information, so let's move on to 2011's bigger, more important sports car news.

2011's German roadster contest was won by the BMW Z4. Not far behind was the Mercedes-Benz SLK. Combined, Porsche's Boxster and Cayman found 3150 U.S. buyers. The Audi TT surged at the end of the year but wasn't a candidate for German roadster sales leadership.

The best-selling American muscle car in America was the Chevrolet Camaro. The Camaro beat the Ford Mustang by an astonishing 17,811 sales in 2011. The Mustang range is better than ever, but sales slid 4.4% last year.

There's one other car, besides the S2000, appearing in this month's first sporty car sales table that doesn't normally show up. Subaru USA broke down the Impreza's total sales, providing us with a chance to see how the WRX measures up. There are no Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution numbers with which to compare the WRX's (if you know where Evo sales figures can be found, do share), but the WRX did end 2011 with more sales than the... Chevrolet Corvette. Although the WRX reported a terrific year-over-year improvement, the Subaru still couldn't compete with the Volkswagen Golf GTI in terms of outright volume.

Keep scrolling for a look at the sales results of higher-priced sporting automobiles in the United States. Use the dropdown menu in the top right of this page to find specific monthly and yearly sales figures for any model currently on sale in North America.

Sporty Car	December 2011	% Change	2011	YTD % Change
Audi A5	1273	- 12.5%	15,385	- 6.1%
Audi TT	216	+ 238%	2236	+ 46%
BMW Z4	299	+ 51.0%	3479	- 8.5%
Chevrolet Camaro	6754	+ 20.3%	88,249	+ 8.5%
Chevrolet Corvette	1038	+ 6.0%	13,164	+ 4.3%
Dodge Challenger	3284	- 1.4%	39,534	+ 7.5%
Ford Mustang	5057	- 7.2%	70,438	- 4.4%
Honda CR-Z	564	- 35.6%	11,330	+ 116%
Honda S2000	2	+ 100%	5	- 94.1%
Hyundai Veloster	2188	-----	9284	-----
Mazda MX-5 Miata	339	- 3.7%	5674	- 10.9%
Mazda RX-8	26	- 72.6%	759	- 33.1%
Mercedes-Benz SLK	266	+ 133%	3220	+ 62.6%
Mitsubishi Eclipse	165	- 30.7%	7546	+ 76.2%
Nissan 370Z	449	- 38.2%	7328	- 28.3%
Porche Boxster	38	- 72.3%	1773	- 18.6%
Porsche Cayman	67	- 40.2%	1377	+ 4.2%
Scion tC	1587	- 0.4%	22,433	+ 47.5%
Subaru Impreza WRX	1257	- 5.6%	13,805	+ 65.9%
Volkswagen Eos	419	+ 16.7%	7533	+ 12.6%
Volkswagen GTI	1332	+ 24.6%	16,867	+ 22.6%
Volvo C70	274	+ 20.7%	4933	+ 12.9%

December 2011 Premium Sports Car Sales Chart
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Sales of Audi's R8 have never been higher. And December 2011 was a notable month for the R8, as Audi's Lamborghini-derived supercar had its best month of the year, and its second-best month ever, after November 2008. The R8 did not prove to be a Porsche 911-beater, not even in this, its best year. 

Because of the BMW 6-Series's gigantic year-over-year boost, the R8 didn't come close to matching the 6er's total, either. BMW's 723 6-Series sales in December helped it to a 911-crushing experience, but year-to-date figures show the 911 to be America's favourite premium sports cars. And the new 911 will be an even better car. Audi would need a much-less expensive R8 model to compete with Porsche's basic Carrera and the 911's incredible sales totals.

December was the best month yet for the Lexus LFA. You'll also notice the Cadillac XLR in the table. It's there just to show its 12 2011 sales - no XLRs were sold in December. Nissan's GT-R beat the Audi R8 by 149 sales in 2011. The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG was an increasingly popular proposition; the Mercedes-Benz SL and CL less so. And Dodge Viper sales shot up to 36 in December. Dodge must be finding leftover Vipers in the same lot Honda's finding S2000s.

Premium Sporty Car	December 2011	% Change	2011	YTD % Change
Audi R8	133	+ 11.8%	1145	+ 43.3%
BMW 6-Series	723	+ 933%	3903	+ 61.4%
Cadillac XLR	-----	- 100%	12	- 93.6%
Dodge Viper	36	+ 50.0%	197	- 49.7%
Jaguar XK	152	+ 14.3%	1738	- 18.7%
Lexus LFA	10	-----	62	-----
Mercedes-Benz CL-Class	57	- 59.0%	943	- 8.9%
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class	99	- 42.8%	1449	- 39.2%
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG	86	+ 79.2%	722	+ 44.7%
Nissan GT-R	35	- 7.9%	1294	+ 47.5%
Porsche 911	423	- 16.9%	6016	+ 4.9%

Source: Manufacturers & ANDC
Clearly GoodCarBadCar is not suggesting that the cars in the two tables above are all direct competitors. Establishing categories among cars as unique as even the Audi TT and Porsche Boxster has never pleased a single reader, so cars have been lumped together so you can simply see how buyers looking for sports cars, roadsters, hot hatches, convertibles, GTs, and wanna-be sports cars spend their money. Greater categorization of cars would only lead to problems that automakers create by not isolating model-specific sales figures: we don't know how many M3s BMW has sold or how many Civics are Si models, for example. The numbers we do have are listed above.

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