Small Car Sales, Midsize Car Sales, Large Car Sales In America - January 2012

Suggesting there are easily-defined trends developing just one month into the new year isn't unlike believing you can decipher what newborn babies are thinking. It's just too early to tell. However, we do know certain things. Not about what the babies think, just about the whole mainstream car sales thing. 

January 2012 Small Car Market Share
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After the jump you can learn a few of these things based on midsize and large car sales results from January 2012. In the small car table you see below, there are a few stand-out facts of which you must be made aware.

Chevrolet sold 16 Aveos in January. The Mini Cooper - that's every Mini that isn't a Countryman - out-sold the Fiat 500 by 164 units. The Fiat 500 out-sold the Volkswagen Beetle by 510 units. The Volkswagen Beetle out-sold the smart fortwo by 905 units. And the smart fortwo out-sold the Scion iQ by 122 units. Mini sales were split, of course, between multiple models. There were 1584 "original" Cooper hatchbacks sold, both Coopers and Cooper S hatchbacks, that is. Add to that 219 Clubmans, 126 Convertibles, and 146 of those dreadfully ugly Coupes. We are also aware that 1398 of the 10,962 Jettas sold in America in January 2012 were SportWagens. Jetta wagons are basically stretched Golfs wearing Jetta badges. Sales of the Jetta sedan were down just 1.8%.

Again, scroll past the jump for details on midsize and large cars. While visiting GoodCarBadCar.net, click any chart for a larger view. Access the dropdown menu at the top right of this page to find monthly and yearly sales figures for any model on sale in North America.

Small Car	January 2012	% Change
Buick Verano	795	-----
Chevrolet Sonic/Aveo	5728	+ 109%
Chevrolet Cruze	15,049	+ 10.4%
Chevrolet HHR	4	- 99.9%
Dodge Caliber	1149	- 52.4%
Fiat 500	1911	-----
Ford Fiesta	3502	- 18.0%
Ford Focus	14,400	+ 59.8%
Honda Civic	21,883	+ 49.5%
Honda Fit	3838	- 11.0%
Hyundai Accent	4341	+ 2.3%
Hyundai Elantra	10,900	+ 12.8%
Kia Forte	4417	- 17.1%
Kia Rio	2596	+ 167%
Kia Soul	8091	+ 51.4%
Mazda 2	3030	+ 533%
Mazda 3	9200	+ 83.4%
Mini Cooper	2075	+ 0.5%
Mitsubishi i MiEV	36	-----
Mitsubishi Lancer	1016	- 9.8%
Nissan Cube	461	- 72.2%
Nissan Sentra	7066	- 25.9%
Nissan Versa	9418	+ 8.5%
Scion iQ	374	-----
Scion xB	1200	- 7.6%
Scion xD	652	+ 4.2%
smart fortwo	496	+ 38.5%
Subaru Impreza	6931	+ 107%
Suzuki SX4	759	- 22.4%
Toyota Corolla/Matrix	17,988	- 12.6%
Toyota Yaris	3010	+ 63.7%
Volkswagen Beetle	1401	+ 417%
Volkswagen Golf	2650	+ 32.2%
Volkswagen Jetta	10,962	- 4.3%

There are things the table below and the surrounding charts won't tell you about midsize car sales in America. For example, January 2012 was the worst sales month for Buick's Regal since October 2010. It was also the Chevrolet Volt's worst sales month since August 2011. The Nissan LEAF easily out-sold the Volt, that's for sure, but it isn't anywhere near its max. Nissan sold 1708 electric cars in June of last year. Sales of the handsome Suzuki Kizashi haven't been this low since February 2010. The year-over-year change calculated for the Chrysler 200 involves Chrysler Sebring sales from a year ago. 

January 2012 Midsize
Car Market Share Chart

Volkswagen's year-over-year percentage change for the Passat reflects the fact that Volkswagen didn't really have Passats to sell in the winter of 2011. Passat sales jumped from 314 in August to 3176 in September, 5040 in October, 6018 in November, 6884 in December, and then 6318 in January (a much smaller overall market). During the same period, sales of the Passat CC fell from 2371 in August to 1610 in September, up to 2025 in October, down to 1698 in November, way up to 2450 in December, and way down to 1415 in the smaller January market. It appears unlikely that the regular Passat has any impact on sales of the less practical CC.

One note on platform-sharers: together, the Kia Optima and Hyundai Sonata, two cars which are totally unrelated in the style department, found 23,303 buyers in January. That's enough to top the second-place Nissan Altima, but not nearly enough to challenge the all-conquering Toyota Camry for top spot.

Midsize Car	January 2012	% Change
Buick Regal	1855	- 20.6%
Chevrolet Malibu	14,676	+ 4.1%
Chevrolet Volt	603	+ 87.9%
Chrysler 200	7007	+ 373%
Dodge Avenger	5697	+ 146%
Ford Fusion	13,614	- 5.1%
Honda Accord	13,659	+ 1.5%
Honda Crosstour	921	- 40.8%
Honda Insight	492	- 68.3%
Hyundai Sonata	14,489	+ 9.3%
Kia Optima	8814	+ 131%
Mazda 6	4929	+ 118%
Mitsubishi Galant	1727	- 32.2%
Nissan Altima	22,357	+ 35.9%
Nissan LEAF	676	+ 677%
Subaru Legacy	3119	+ 23.4%
Subaru Outback	7412	+ 6.2%
Suzuki Kizashi	253	- 73.1%
Toyota Camry	28,295	+ 58.0%
Toyota Prius/Prius V	11,555	+ 8.7%
* Prius Liftback	8500	- 20.1%
* Prius V	3055	-----
Toyota Venza	2460	+ 3.1%
Volkswagen Passat	6318	+ 5750%
Volkswagen Passat CC	1414	+ 2.3%

Large Car	January 2012	% Change
Buick LaCrosse	4013	+ 6.4%
Buick Lucerne	421	- 85.0%
Chevrolet Caprice PPV	92	-----
Chevrolet Impala	16,009	+ 5.4%
Chrysler 300	4960	+ 273%
Dodge Charger	5537	+ 169%
Ford Taurus	3447	+ 19.0%
Hyundai Azera	18	- 88.5%
Nissan Maxima	4001	+ 27.1%
Toyota Avalon	3219	+ 79.3%

Source: Manufacturers & ANDC 
* Prius breakdown by variant

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