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America's 20 most popular vehicles combined for 38.9% market share in January 2011. Despite totalling approximately 8% of all nameplates, these twenty vehicles were responsible for nearly four out of every ten of the 819,938 new automobiles sold in the first month of 2011. The Ford F-Series led the way with 4.4% of all new vehicle sales last month. When grouped with the Chevrolet Silverado, Dodge Ram, and GMC Sierra, America's full-size trucks grabbed more than ten out of every 100 new vehicle buyers. Luxury was not part of the 38.9%, at least not in terms of premium brand representation. Cars priced like the $15,600 2011 Toyota Corolla, $15,995 2011 Volkswagen Jetta, and $19,820 2011 Ford Fusion are more in line with the vast majority of American motor sales. Of the 230+ models in the purple section of the Graph below, the all-new 2011 Hyundai Elantra was the closest to finding its way onto the list of America's 20 Best-Selling Vehicles for January 2011. With 9659 sales, the Elantra was up 26% from January 2010 and owned 1.178% market share in January, 968 sales behind the GMC Sierra.
Restoration is, according to dictionary.com, a return of something to a former, original, normal, or unimpaired condition. One glance at U.S. auto sales data will tell you the restoration is underway, but not yet complete. The total market was worth 819,938 sales in January. That's up from 2010; way up from January 2009. But compared with January 2001, the total new vehicle market last month was down 30%. Let's call the situation "mid-reno."Fewer than one quarter of the automobiles on this list of America's Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles posted lower sales in January 2010 than they did in January 2009. Look further back, however, and the numbers remain discouraging in spite of year-over-year gains. Yes, the BMW 3-Series is up 6.4% over January 2010, but the 3-Series is down 31.3% compared with January 2003. Sure, there are numerous variables one must consider before comparing sales from eight years ago with data from today, not the least of which is a luxury market filled with niche players. More importantly, automakers are adjusting to the smaller overall market. General Motors and its luxury representative, Cadillac, are a smaller company designed to compete in a smaller market. Indeed, this is a necessary step. While Cadillac is up 49.1% over last year; the company is down 10.5% from January 2003. The best news for Cadillac may be its across-the-board gains in January. Other than the STS and defunct XLR, ever model posted increases in January 2011. Two Cadillacs are in the top 10 below; the Escalade slid into 13th (up five spots from 2010's year end numbers) and the DTS more than doubled up on January 2010's figures.Numerous automakers fielded four vehicles for this list. Mercedes-Benz leads the pack with five entrants in the Top 30, not a surprising fact given Benz's position as America's best-selling luxury auto brand in January 2011.
A new Mercedes-Benz SLK roadster has debuted. Retrospectively, however, the SLK doubled its January volume from 2010 to 2011. Nevertheless, these remain seriously niche market cars; the BMW Z4, Audi TT, Porsche Boxster, and Porsche Cayman included. Combined, those five cars were out-sold by another German, the sweet Volkswagen GTI, by more than 200 units in January. True sports car volume is found in the domestic alternatives, the big-engined Detroit cars produced by Chevrolet, Dodge, and Ford.Indeed, Dodge Challenger volume was up 50% in January 2011 even as Camaro and Mustang volume fell, 11.3% and 33.3% respectively. Corvette sales dropped as well, but the defunct Dodge Viper was up 138.5%. Along with the Viper, other somewhat exotic cars enjoyed a nice uptick in winter sales. The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG wasn't on sale in January 2010, but its 70 sales represent a 45.8% increase on the previous month. As you may have (not) already noticed, the Cadillax XLR is missing. Cadillac didn't sell any copies of their most expensive product, which is no longer listed on Cadillac's website. You'd be better served by the $63,465 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Wagon anyhow.
For all the talk of the minivan's death, it's interesting to see a minivan sales chart posted here alongside another chart for truck sales. By the standards of the Ford F-Series, there are really only a handful of truck models that sell in meaningful volumes. Together, yes, the truck market was worth 113,378 sales in January 2011; minivan sales totalled barely more than 31,000. However, there are parallels. 76.6% of all truck sales came as a result of the four best-selling models: Ford's F-Series, the Chevrolet Silverado, GMC's Sierra, and the Dodge Ram. Likewise, the vast majority of January 2011's minivan sales, 88.8%, came as a result of the four best-selling vans: Chrysler's Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan, the Toyota Sienna, and the Honda Odyssey. Curiously, this boils down to three trucks and three vans since the Sierra and Silverado are one and the same, as are the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan. Extinguish all other trucks and all other vans - 15 models in total - and the U.S. auto market would only have lost 31,081 sales last month, so few that the overall new vehicle market still would have grown by 89,871 sales compared with January 2010. Ain't that somethin'.With the Ford Ranger's soon-coming death and the full-fledged onslaught of the excellent Good 12-winning 2011 Ford F-150, the truck buyers will be even more in favour of supporting best-selling trucks in the coming months. Likewise, the Kia Rondo has already been restricted for U.S. consumption and the minivan market's best sellers from Chrysler and Dodge are substantially revitalized for 2011. It's unlikely that the all-new 2011 Nissan Quest will be a huge thorn in the top sellers' sides. Successful though the new 2011 Honda Odyssey may seem (sales were up 44.4% in January) in spite of its awful door cut, Chrysler still held close to half the market.
Now that they're established models, the start of a real sales battle between the 2011 Nissan Juke and 2011 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport is underway with January 2011 sales data available in the chart below. And why not throw their indirect rival into the mix, as 2011 Mini Cooper Countryman sales info is up and ready. Nearly doubling up on the conventional Outlander, the Outlander Sport trailed the Juke by 2030 sales last month. The Countryman was another 379 units behind. Okay, maybe this won't be much of a battle. You really ought to read The Good Car Guy's Driven reviews of the Juke and the Mini Countryman.On the more mainstream side of things, the less exciting but far more popular Honda CR-V walked away from friends and foes as the best-selling utility vehicle in America in January. Not too terribly far behind were other smallerish SUVs like the Ford Escape and Chevrolet Equinox. In the distance, (sixth, seventh, ninth, and tenth spots) were larger vehicles from Ford, Chevrolet, Jeep and Toyota. In fact, Toyota Highlander sales were up 67.6% in January. Note the separation of vehicles formerly shown together in GoodCarBadCar.net charts as well as the inclusion of the 2011 Dodge Durango.Among the largest of sport-utility vehicles, only the Nissan Armada and Kia Borrego posted lower volumes in January 2011 than in January 2010. Borrego volume dropped by 85.4%. The General Motors foursome was up 13.9% to 11,150 total sales.
Nearly disappearing off the chart in January 2011 is the Bad 8-losing Acura ZDX. With only 148 sales in the month, the ZDX trailed the similarly awful BMW X6 by 209 and the Infiniti FX by 792. ZDX sales were down 14%; X6 sales were down 7%; FX sales were up 11.1%. Naturally, these are the bit players, the sideshow, the circus attraction which people think they'd like to see before deciding that, "Hmm, yes, the elephants would be a better choice." And so, Lexus RX sales rose 3.4% and sales of the Acura MDX jumped 32.6% in January 2011.The Lincoln MKT is falling fast. Sales plummeted 45.5% even as the Lincoln MKX faltered with a 29.7% drop. Missing from January 2011's chart is the Saab 9-7X and the 17 sales it brought to General Motors last year at this time. There is entertainment to be found outside of the Cadillac SRX/Mercedes-Benz GLK/Audi Q5 maelstrom, too. Land Rover LR2 sales dropped 10.1% from an insignificant 178 in January 2010 to an even less significant 160 in January 2011. Meanwhile, the $34,550 2011 Infiniti EX35 now comes across as terribly uninteresting given the relative freshness of Mercedes-Benz's GLK, the Audi Q5, and BMW's second-generation X3. EX sales dropped 14.8% last month. BMW X3 sales improved by 273.3%. The Acura RDX, aging even faster than the EX, managed to post an increase of 41.9% in January.
Small in volume but rich in tradition and... er, riches, these two large luxury categories are filled with vehicles which represent the pinnacle of regular passenger vehicle manufacturing. Take the Mercedes-Benz S550, for example, a $93,000 four-door sedan available with an 8-inch splitview entertainment option that'll enable the passenger to watch a movie even as the driver keeps up with the GPS. S-Class sales were down just a bit in January; a 1.5% drop from January 2010. Look at the Porsche Panamera for a moment. Despite its tremendously awful exterior styling, the interior design has got to be considered one of the best of any vehicle. The 2011 Porsche Panamera Turbo will reach 188 miles per hour. Yikes. Panamera sales rose 13.1% in January. On the sport-utility vehicle front, the oft-ignored 2011 Toyota Land Cruiser is priced from $68,020 and is fitted as standard with 14 speakers of JBL audio. January sales remained level at 145, just 2.3% of the overall large luxury SUV market. The Chevy Suburban-based $65,765 2011 Cadillac Escalade ESV uses Magnetic Ride Control to "read" the road 1000 times per second and adjust the ride every five milliseconds. The extended Escalade formed 26% of the Escalade family's sales in January. Escalade ESV sales were up 49.5% compared with January 2010.Perhaps of greater interest to industry observers and analysts is January 2011's parity in the large luxury car sector. Just 364 sales separated the best-selling large luxury car (Mercedes-Benz S-Class) from the worst-selling large luxury car (Jaguar XJ) in January. The best-seller from December was bumped to number two; worst-seller status moved from Audi to Jaguar. While market share in the segment ranged from 28.8% for the Lexus LS to 9.5% for the Audi A8 in December, January's range went from just 21.9% for the Mercedes-Benz S-Class to 11.9% for the Jaguar XJ. There's also little doubt that the reinvigorated Jaguar XJ, all-new Audi A8, and still fresh Porsche Panamera have been thieving sales from the established players: the LS, 7-Series, and S-Class. In January 2010, Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz sold a total of 3212 vehicles in the segment while Audi, Jaguar, and Porsche sold 600. The first trio's total dropped by about a third while the second trio's total more than doubled one year later.
Rather than disparage Acura for failing to sell more than 160 RLs in January 2011, why not question the 160 humans who acquired an Acura RL in January as to why they chose a freakin' Acura RL over a desirable Infiniti M37 or, dare we say it, even a 2011 Saab 9-5? Seriously, 160 U.S. residents genuinely felt the RL should be their next new car... and they managed to stay awake while completing the paperwork?Enough harshness. It's been decided that, at this stage of the morning, excessive criticism will lead to over-the-top critiques later in the day. So it's time to be friendly. Acura TSX sales were up 7.5% in January - was the increase due to a wagon influx? And RL sales improved over January 2010, too, by posting a 45.5% increase. Acura TL sales slid 19.8%. Many other Japanese luxury cars struggled last month. At Lexus, the ES, GS, HS, and IS all posted lower sales totals than in January 2010. But Infiniti improved on the M's January 2010 total by five units and the G25/G37 family was up 14.9%. From Sweden (or Denmark, or China, however you see the global automobile industry) sales of the Saab 9-3 jumped 19.3% and sales of the gorgeous 2011 Volvo S60 shot up from 6 to over 1000, a 17,267% increase.Accustomed to towering volume from the BMW 3-Series, you may think January 2011's 5763 represents a poverty-stricken month for BMW USA dealers. You'd be thinking wrong. 3-Series sales rose 6.4% over January 2010 totals, a sign that BMW may be in for a tremendously strong 2011. The brand as a whole was up nearly 20% in January.
