Showing posts with label Niche Car Sales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Niche Car Sales. Show all posts
Monday, October 25, 2010

Niche Car Sales And Niche SUV And Truck Sales In Canada - September 2010

Going back to April, average sales of the Jeep Wrangler in 2010 in Canada were standing at 1273 per month. In September 2010, Jeep Wrangler sales dropped to 602, not nearly enough to place the 2010 Jeep Wrangler among Canada's best-selling SUVs. What happened? Actually, normality kicked in. Despite the drop from 731 sales last September to 602 last month, Wrangler sales are still up 68.6% year-to-date in 2010. 

Do the poor Canadian sales of the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight spell doom and gloom for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and 2011 Nissan Leaf in the Great White North? Out-of-the-ordinary hybrids have been mostly rejected in Canada, a country which seems to recognize (for the most part) that there's little-to-no financial benefit from owning or leasing these cars. Prius sales fell 71% in September and are down 22.6% in 2010. The more expensive Volt and Leaf are technofests which make the Prius and Insight seem Luddite-inspired, but still one must wonder: are Canadians ever interested in spending more without gaining something financially? 

The U.S. car market was seven times the size of the Canadian market in September 2010. Sales of the 2010 Toyota Prius in the United States were 74 times stronger. Honda Insight sales were 24 times stronger. Based on these figures, Chevrolet and Nissan's expectations in Canada should be low.

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Niche Car Sales And Niche SUV And Truck Sales In America - September 2010

The 2010 Toyota Prius was very nearly one of America's best-selling cars in September 2010, falling about 800 units shy of the Chevrolet Impala. News has surfaced which shows Toyota is more intent than ever on expanding the Prius brand, an act which should have benefits on sales of the original Prius model. The Prius's main competitor, meanwhile, sold once for every six or seven Prii sold in September.

In other uncategorized vehicle segment news, the Kia Soul continues to walk all over the Scion xB and Nissan Cube. Could the 2011 Nissan Juke throw a wrench into this trio? Who knows what the Nissan Juke can do? It's so.... weird and so.... wonderful. The Volkswagen Passat CC continues to out-sell the "regular" Volkswagen Passat sedan and wagon; by better than 3-to-1 in September. The 2011 Volkswagen Passat has been unveiled, but what North America receives isn't totally nailed down.

Jacked up off the ground, niche-market vehicles like the Toyota FJ Cruiser and Jeep Wrangler fared well in September 2010. U.S. sales of the FJ Cruiser were up 245% last month; Wrangler sales jumped by 1763 units. BMW X6 sales doubled compared with September 2009's Sales Stats, but in contrast with the BMW X5, America's best-selling European SUV, well, there's no comparison. Smart buyers are chose the more intelligent vehicle 6.5 times for every misguided X6 purchase.
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Niche Car Sales And Niche SUV And Truck Sales In Canada - August 2010

It's no longer appropriate to say there's an automotive sales war being waged between the Kia Soul and Nissan Cube. Clearly Kia's okay with allowing the Nissan Cube to live on - the Cube isn't dead (yet) - but the Soul has become such a fixture of the North American highway scene that it's been flirting with Best Selling Cars lists for the last few months. Sales of the 2010 Nissan Cube were down 64.2% in August. Sales of the 2010 Kia Soul jumped 9.3%. 

There are other vehicles for sale in Canada which aren't so easy to classify, either. At GoodCarBadCar.net, we call them Niche Cars, Niche SUVs, and Niche Trucks. They aren't necessarily incredibly unique, but they aren't direct competitors of vehicles mentioned in other Sales Stats Graphs. Apart from the Kia Soul, August wasn't a good month for these vehicles. 

Consider the hybrids from Toyota and Honda. Prius sales plummeted 73.8%; Insight sales rose by a meager 5 units to a paltry 66. Chevrolet HHR volume declines 30% from August 2009. The now defunct Chrysler PT Cruiser went from 102 sales last August to 2 sales in August 2010. Sales at BMW's Mini division fell 14.7%. Mercedes-Benz's smart car posted a 35.4% drop, slightly worse than the 34.7% drop in Volkswagen New Beetle volume.

Niche trucks and SUVs fared better in many cases. Jeep grabbed 1054 Wrangler customers in August 2010; up a fair bit from 491 in August 2009. The Toyota FJ Cruiser, Chevrolet Avalanche, Honda Ridgeline, and BMW X6 all sold at greater rates than in August 2009. Check the details in the Graphs below.

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Thursday, September 9, 2010

Niche Car Sales And Niche SUV And Truck Sales In America - August 2010

If you want a unique vehicle, I'm not sure the Jeep Wrangler is the best bet anymore. Sure, it's a whole lot different than the run-of-the-mill Toyota Camry or garden variety Ford F-150, but the Wrangler is - among SUVs at least - almost as ubiquitous. Slightly restyled recently, the 2011 Jeep Wrangler is still a GoodCarBadCar.net favourite, but a 37% sales increase in August might mean your neighbour has one, too. And that doesn't make you unique.

Cash For Clunkers, which ran last summer, was designed to, among other things, support the sales growth of fuel-efficent cars. Family cars don't get much more fuel-efficient than the Toyota Prius. We weren't surprised to see August 2009 sales of the Toyota Prius, therefore, jump 47% from August 2008 levels. Now we can't say we're surprised to see Toyota suffer through a 37.5% decline in Prius sales. Still immensely popular in the United States, the Prius's most current sales figures reflect artificially inflated August 2008 results. Even so, Prius sales were lower  last month than they were in August of 2008, too. 

Get info on the Sales Stats for the Wrangler, Prius, and many other niche market vehicles in the Graphs below.
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Sunday, August 22, 2010

NICHE CAR SALES AND NICHE SUV AND TRUCK SALES IN CANADA - JULY 2010

We're down to a very few new Chrysler PT Cruisers in Canada. Production is over. Only three were sold in Canada in July. That fact doesn't make the Chevrolet HHR's lackluster showing in Canada look all that good. The HHR, a fair earner for General Motors south of the border, is deemed undesirable by the Canadian auto-buying populace. Despite possessing 1/10th the population, Canadians registered only 1/55th the HHRs in July 2010. In fact, Americans made the HHR more popular than the Kia Soul in July. Kia Canada should be pleased to know that their Soul out-sold (out-Souled?) the Chevrolet HHR by more than 7-to-1 in July. 

There are 257 Acura ZDXs on Canadian roads now, not counting the odd American tourist visiting Niagara Falls from Manhattan. By odd I don't mean "rare" or "more or less". No, I mean odd as in "peculiar" or "eccentric". To be driving an Acura ZDX, chances are you're odd: at least your car-buying habits are unique. ZDX owners formerly drove either an Isuzu VehiCross or Cadillac Allante.

I disparage so. It's just a curious thing, the purchase of an Acura ZDX. What was wrong with the less-expensive, more practical, better-looking Acura MDX? And BMW X6 owners, I ask you this: what was wrong with the less-expensive, more practical, better-looking BMW X5? 270 people made the correct choice in BMW's Canadian dealerships in July; 497 at Canadian Acura dealers. The 133 of y'all walked to the wrong corner of the showroom.

Details on niche cars, SUVs, and trucks of all kinds are in the Graphs below.
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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

NICHE CAR SALES AND NICHE SUV & TRUCK SALES IN AMERICA - JULY 2010

Combined U.S. sales of the Volkswagen Passat and Passat wagon failed to reach 1,000 in July 2010. Volkswagen's Passat spin-off model, the Mercedes-Benz CLS-inspired Passat CC, tallied 3,394 sales in the United States in July 2010. That's like Jeter hitting 600 home runs before A-Rod. 

In other Niche Car Sales news, the Kia Soul was the Korean automotive brand's number two model in July, out in front of the Kia Forte but behind the 2011 Kia Sorento. While overall BMW's Mini brand was down 11-2% in July, sales of the regular Mini Cooper and Cooper S hatchbacks were up 2.9% to 3,125. Blame the Mini Convertible (down 32.8% to 573) and Mini Clubman (-36.1% to 628) for family problems.

Among SUVs and trucks, the Wrangler brought the bacon home for Jeep in July. Only the Grand Cherokee came close to the Wrangler in overall sales. Jeep Wrangler sales were up 121% in July and are up 5% to 56,192 year-to-date. While you're amazed that only 210 residents of the United States acquired Hummers in July, The Good Car Guy is wondering how Hummer found 210 buyers in the span of one month. Similarly the Acura ZDX: is 578 Acura ZDX sales a low figure or, given its dreadfulness, rather lofty?

Details on the Passat CC, Soul, Mini, Wrangler, Hummer, and ZDX are in the Graphs below along with numerous other niche market vehicles.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

NICHE CAR SALES AND NICHE SUV AND TRUCK SALES IN CANADA - JUNE 2010

chevrolet hhr panel
SUV coupes, an oxymoronic amalgam of two primarily offbeat terms themselves, haven't exactly set the Canadian Marketplace on fire. True, BMW and Acura don't require the X6 and ZDX to be world famous. These two vehicles are built using donated architecture and sell at higher price points. Even so, BMW X6 and Acura ZDX Sales Stats are abysmal. 

All GCBC Graphs point to the fact that The Good Car Guy hates localized visual inspections when used as evidence to support car sales theories, but out of the two ZDXs seen on roads near GCBC Towers, one driver didn't have enough headroom and the other was a manager at the Acura dealership. Both vehicles are members of The Bad 8 Supersize v2.0.

Every time Nissan dealers in Canada sold a Cube in June 2010, Canadian Kia dealers sold 6 Souls. Selling souls is something I strongly discourage, but the selling of Kia Souls is one reason Kia has become a serious automotive player, particularly in the value-minded market known as Canada. The advent of Scion dealers in Canada come autumn could potentially make the Cube an even rarer sight once the xB begins attracting buyers. 

And what is it about the Chevrolet HHR that Canadians despise so much? The Good Car Guy's review in the Chronicle-Herald a few years ago wasn't exactly full of praise, but it's still weird to see a car posting 35-times stronger sales in the USA: 6,004-171 in June. June 2010 sales of other niche automotive products are in the charts below.

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Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

NICHE CAR SALES AND NICHE SUV AND TRUCK SALES IN CANADA - MAY 2010

Strangely, the abject failure that the Honda Insight is in the United States has not produced failure in Canada. That's not to say Canadian buyers always follow their American neighbours, not at all. It's also worth pointing out that the Insight's Canadian success is purely relative; as compared with the Toyota Prius. But the Prius, in Canada, has nowhere near the hybrid sway it does in the USA. So is the Honda Insight doing well in Canada? Uh.... no. Civics are more than 20 times as popular, for context. But is the Honda Insight within reach of the Toyota Prius in Canada? Yes, and that's not something that can be said by American Honda dealers.

The gap between Kia's Soul and the Nissan Cube is about as wide as it's ever been. Though GoodCarBadCar.net would've been glad to acquire a free Cube through the hypercube competition last year, it's not surprising that the Soul's pricing strategy, mixed with superior design and all-around Kia momentum is helping Kia conquer Nissan with ease. Come fall 2010 and Scion will try and throw a wrench into the Canadian boxy hatchback market with the xB.

As far as larger niche vehicle products go, don't we all just want a Jeep? Yes, apparently we all do.

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Monday, July 5, 2010

U.S. SALES OF MINIVANS, NICHE SUVs AND TRUCKS, NICHE CARS - JUNE 2010

2010 honda insight
With no help from General Motors or Ford, sales of domestic minivans don't measure up to the total put together by Asian minivans. On the other hand, you can safely say that Chrysler's minivan duo, the Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country, hold a gigantic percentage of the American minivan pie. June 2010 Sales Stats of minivans are below.

The Jeep Wrangler set a torrid sales pace in 2010, continuing on from May. An increase of 86% over June 2009 speaks volumes about the desire buyers still have for traditional sport-utility vehicles when they're done right, although June 2009 wasn't exactly the best auto sales month on record. Sales of niche SUVs and trucks like the Wrangler can be seen in the Graph below.

Whethers its price, ugliness, or relatively ordinary fuel economy harming its chances, buyers aren't very interested in the Honda Insight. June 2010 sales of the Toyota Prius in America were more than seven times stronger than Honda put up with the Insight. Other niche cars can be seen with the Prius and Insight in the bottom Graph.

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Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Truck Sales & Minivan Sales In America - June 2011
Niche Car Sales & Niche SUV & Truck Sales In America - July 2010
Minivan Sales In The USA - July 2010
Niche SUV & Truck Sales In America - May 2010
Niche Car Sales In America - May 2010
U.S. Minivan Sales - June 2010
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Monday, June 14, 2010

SALES OF NICHE CARS IN THE USA - MAY 2010

mini cooper
Available now in three bodystyles, the Mini Cooper is part of BMW's route around CAFE and EU CO2 emissions control while also bringing BMW a huge source of small car profitability. With a few engines, one platform, and one undying style ethos, the Mini range is a gold mine. Soon, the Mini Countryman will sell at a faster rate than any of us thought possible and Mini will be on its way to mainstream.

But you'd never guess based on Mini's 4,233 sales in April. BMW's own 3-Series sells at more than twice the pace. America's current best-selling car, the Honda Accord, crossed the 30,000-unit threshold in May. What's 4,233 sales in a month? Nothing.... right? Remember that automakers earn a lot of profit off options, and few vehicles leave the factory as optioned-up as a Mini Cooper.
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Sunday, May 30, 2010

NICHE CAR SALES IN CANADA - APRIL 2010

Unlike its equivalent Sales Stats chart from the United States, Canada's Niche Car Sales Graph doesn't include any so-called 4-door coupes. There's not a single Scion, either. Scions won't be available in Canada for a few months and the Germans (Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen) link their CLS-Class and CC sales with the E-Class and Passat, respectively.

What's the purpose of linking together the vehicles mentioned below? Where else do we put them? These are the vehicles with little or no direct competition, a little bit of indirect competition at best. Rather than see other vehicles in this Graph as rivals, then, look at them as individuals.... the fringe... society's loved outcasts. Of course the Kia Soul and Nissan Cube have got to be the most cross-shopped vehicles of the group (GoodCarBadCar.net even has a section devoted to Cube vs Soul) but you'll ignore this for the purposes of including niche automobiles in the monthly rundown of Canada's Auto Sales.
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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

SALES OF NICHE CARS IN THE USA - APRIL 2010

What's wrong with the 2010 Honda Insight? Fuel efficiency doesn't reach the levels attained by the Toyota Prius, true. But the Insight is $3,000 less expensive than the Prius. Surely a $3,000 price advantage brings with it high-volume sales in the hybrid market? Er.... no. Apparently not.

The Graph below showcases thirteen vehicles for which other GoodCarBadCar.net Sales Stats Graphs don't really fit. Although the title, "Niche Car Sales" implies a lack of success the same way "cult movie classic" means nobody ever watched it, the Toyota Prius is actually a very decent seller. Some months the Prius even cracks in to the Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In America list. One would expect the Prius's success to rub off on its most direct competitor, but the Honda Insight is madly undesirable. In fact, The Good Car Guy placed the 2010 Honda Insight in The Bad 8 v3.0 despite initial excitement at the early Insight concept and the old Honda Insight's place in GoodCarBadCar.net's 100 Favourite Cars.

One subsegment in this Niche Car Sales group is the Boxy Bunch, led by the Chevrolet HHR and Kia Soul. Supposedly appealing to a youthful crowd, Toyota's Scion division hasn't fared well lately. Nor has the Nissan Cube caught on as anticipated.
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