Showing posts with label US March 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US March 2011. Show all posts
Saturday, April 30, 2011

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

After a trip south of the border, Canadians never cease to mention the huge number of trucks and sport-utility vehicles on American interstates. Based on March 2011 sales figures, however, it's the Canadian bunch which possesses the propensity for purchasing pickup trucks.

Seen in pie chart form, the difference between the Canadian and U.S. auto markets is stark but not at all what you'd expect based on Canada's higher fuel prices and higher vehicle prices. Nevertheless, when split up more thoroughly - as has been done all month on GoodCarBadCar.net - the smallest models make up the vast majority of Canadian car sales. Three in every ten new vehicle sales in Canada in March were part of this Graph. In the United States, on the other hand, the best-selling car is almost always a midsizer.

Just to clarify, the green "other" section of the U.S. Graph below is filled with defunct models which no longer appear in GCBC's charts like the Ford Crown Victoria and Kia Rondo as well as brands like Maserati which don't offer a model-by-model sales split. Those sorts form an inconsequential portion of the Canadian market. 

And how 'bout them Sprinters and Econolines? 

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - March 2011

When the Volkswagen Passat narrowly missed landing on Canada's Worst Sellers list in March 2011, what you didn't realize was that the swoopy Volkswagen Passat CC was included in those Passat sales figures. Here, with the soon-to-be-replaced 2010 Volkswagen Passat at #1, 2331 Passat CC sales are missing. By itself, the CC was in fact up 16.9% in March and is up 14.7% year-to-date.

The Good Car Guy already went over the changes to the new monthly rundown of Worst-Selling Vehicles. That leaves a little space to lob insults at some of the worst offenders.

The Jaguar XF is a pretty cool car. Yet ever since the newer, bigger Jaguar XJ came to market, XF sales have been in a perpetual dive. Thus, there are no insults found here for the XF, only for Jaguar's product planners who've made the XF a V8-only car (like the XJ) and set up an overlapping pricing strategy. Jaguar XJ sales totalled 463 in March, up 4530%.

Ah, but a genuine insult is what you desire. It is the official opinion of this website that the Lexus HS250h is the worst new car you could buy today. As a member of GoodCarBadCar.net's The Bad 8, the HS250h was already set aside as one of eight automobiles you must avoid. Now the Lexus CT200h is here and the HS looks even worse. HS250h sales were down 80% in Q1. 

While we're speaking of Toyota products, how 'bout a moment for the Yaris? Not awful in the conventional sense, the Yaris is now viewed in the light of the excellent 2011 Ford Fiesta and a 2012 Kia Rio which is bound to be a winner. No wonder Yaris sales are disappearing.

Rank
Vehicle
% Drop
March 2011
#1
Volkswagen Passat
-97.8
38
#2
Lexus HS250h
-84.6
230
#3
Volkswagen New Beetle
-74.8
500
#4
BMW 6-Series
-69.2
66
#5
Jaguar XF
-60.4
294
#6
Mazda RX-8
-51.6
61
#7
Jaguar XK
-49.4
117
#8
Mazda Tribute
-42.4
189
#9
Hyundai Santa Fe
-40.3
5701
#10
Toyota Yaris
-39.9
2825

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - March 2012
The 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - April 2011
The 15 Worst-Selling Cars In America In 2010
Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America - March 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - March 2011
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - March 2011
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Monday, April 11, 2011

Truck Sales And Minivan Sales In America - March 2011

There were 128,782 full-size pickup trucks sold in the United States in March 2011, excluding the Chevrolet Avalanche and Cadillac Escalade EXT. That's up from 113,395 in March 2010, a 13.6% increase in an overall market which grew 16.9%. Compared with February 2011, the full-size pickup truck market increased from 108,096, a 19.2% jump in an overall market which grew 25.5%. All this occurred even as Americans find themselves paying about a dollar more for gas than they were at this time last year; about 20 cents more than they were paying a month ago.

There are clearly conflicting facts at play here. First, sales of big pickup trucks are up, so Americans must be ignoring rising gas prices, right? Well, full-size truck sales are up, but not as much as the overall market. In other words, the growth in the large pickup truck segment isn't as pronounced as in the rest of the new vehicle market. Then again, sales of the Detroit trucks which made up 92.6% of the full-size truck market in March - the Chevrolet Silverado, Dodge Ram, Ford F-Series, and GMC Sierra - were up 19.2% over March 2010, out-pacing the overall new vehicle market's pace. Set aside the Nissan Titan's 22% decline and the Toyota Tundra's 30% plunge and the truck market appears especially strong. Sales of the four previously mentioned American trucks were up 17.9% from February. 

Finally, a third point: demand for these pickups appears high, but incentives are raging and there are thousands of dollars on the hood of each and every truck. Sales couldn't grow in such a manner were it not for 0% financing or $5500 off the MSRP. On a separate note, Chris Baccus says the take rate for Ford's EcoBoost V6 is presently at 30%.

As for the minivan family, there were 48,311 sold in March. The Honda Odyssey was most popular. The Toyota Sienna wasn't far behind a'tall. However, join the two Chrysler products together - the Town & Country and slightly better-selling Grand Caravan - and you see Fiat Auburn Hills walking away with 39.4% market share. And don't forget about some middling profits the Chrysler Group earns from building Volkswagan a handful of Routans in Windsor, Ontario.

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

Automotive segments aren't bound by hard and fast rules. What you call a tall wagon, GoodCarBadCar.net may call an SUV, or vice versa. However, based mainly on a vehicle's competitive set - as well as its price, size, and the necessity to fit it in somewhere - GoodCarBadCar.net labels 16 vehicles as Midsize Luxury SUVs. Feel free to disagree with the classifications or even the title. Just check out other Graphs to find other vehicles with which you can compare any or all of these 16 utility vehicles. The data is flitting around in some chart on GoodCarBadCar.net, so call'em what you like, label'em how you please, and compare at your leisure.

That was all meant to pre-clarify the context by which we can now conclude that 28,305 midsize luxury SUVs were sold in America in March 2011. 43% of those sales were Japanese vehicles. Even though some of those vehicles are built in North America, you can bet quite safely that Japan's market share in this segment will drop in April. Acura ZDX sales dropped 25% in an overall new vehicle market which increased by 17%. BMW X6 sales fell 24%. Infiniti FX sales were up 5%.

When it comes to small luxury SUVs, an 8-vehicle segment you can filter through the light of the midsize luxury SUV class, there were 14,424 sales in March 2011. About three in every ten sales represented in the chart below are Cadillac SRX utility vehicles. Very nearly half were German vehicles: the Bremen, Germany-built Benz GLK; Ingolstadt's Audi Q5; and the pride of South Carolina, BMW's 2011 X3. BMW dealers must be more than a little pleased to have a new X3. Sales of BMW's second-smallest SAV soared 270% in March. Over at the formerly BMW-run Land Rover, LR2 sales fell 33%.

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Friday, April 8, 2011

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

Offering just enough refinement to compete with fresher models, the 2011 Ford Escape can't be considered the best small utility vehicle on sale today. Nevertheless, it was America's best-selling small SUV in March on sales which rose 25% over March 2010's total. Toyota RAV4 sales dropped 38%. The Chevrolet Equinox was up 17%, and Nissan Rogue sales soared upwards at a 69% clip. Combined, the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain would not quite measure up to America's #2 utility vehicle, the $21,695 2011 Honda CR-V, sales of which jumped dramatically from the 14,848-unit showing in March of last year.

Among sometimes larger, generally more expensive "midsize" machines, the Blue Oval commanded attention utterly and completely in March. The Edge has been a bruising force for a while, but now with the 2011 Ford Explorer Ford was able to find 27,338 buyers for its middle-rung SUVs last month. Compare that with 19,547 sales for GM's Lambda platform (Enclave, Traverse, Acadia) or 15,556 Toyota 4Runners, FJ Cruisers, and Highlanders. 

Stretch the borders further and Ford SUV sales in March totalled 54,954. That's a rather healthy figure, especially considering the rediscovered strength of Ford's car sales. Excluding the soon-to-depart Crown Victoria, Ford sold 69,042 cars in March, indicating a balanced approach to new vehicle sales by traditionally truck-centred Ford. And though Expedition sales seem quite low compared to the Escape, Explorer, and Edge, the biggest Ford utility vehicle enjoyed a 40% year-over-year bump.

Among Chrysler's midsizers, the Jeep Grand Cherokee continues to post year-over-year improvements, up 64% in March. Sales of the new 2011 Dodge Durango grew from 2731 in February to 4392 in March, a 61% increase in a market which grew 25.5%.

Sadly, Kia Borrego sales plunged 89%. Don't blame fuel prices for the Borrego's decline. Along with the Expedition, sales of the other jumbo SUVs like the Nissan Armada, GMC Yukon, and Chevrolet Tahoe all increased compared with prior year figures.

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Thursday, April 7, 2011

New Vehicle Market Share By Brand In The UK - March 2011

Ford was by far Britain's most popular auto manufacturer in March, out-selling its nearest competitor - that'd be Vauxhall - by 11,251. Sales of Ford, Vauxhall, and third-ranked Volkswagen all declined compared with March 2010. Whereas the Canadian and U.S. brand rankings don't see a luxury automaker appear until 13th and 14th, respectively, Audi was the UK's fourth-ranked automaker in March. Nevertheless, the Volkswagen Auto Group's market share dropped from 22.1% in February to 17.4%.

Meanwhile, though Blue Oval volume fell 14.9%, Ford market share grew 2.5 percentage points from February. General Motors lost four percentage points. 37.6% of all Ford UK sales in March were Fiestas; another 27.5% were made up by the second-best-selling Focus. 77.2% of all Vauxhall sales were Corsas, Astras, and Insignias. That leaves 9492 Agiras, Antaras, Merivas, and Zafiras, and perhaps some other things that end in aaah.

Posting the greatest year-over-year gain in March UK auto sales was Infiniti, up 683.3% to.... 47 total sales. Alfa Romeo sales jumped 66.4% to 2269. On the opposite end of the ledger, Ssangyong sales nearly disappeared, plunging 96.1% from 102 to 4. MG fell 84.6%, and Chrysler was chopped in half, dropping to 125 total sales. The overall UK market fell 7.9%, but was up 5.9% if 2010's scrappage scheme sales are excluded from the tally.

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Wednesday, April 6, 2011

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

There's three extra bits of info in March 2011's U.S. Premium Sporty Car chart. Estimates for three sporting car manufacturers, as generated by the Automotive News Data Center, are shown in the fullest sense available alongside the Porsche 911 (down 1% in March) and the Audi R8 (up 103.8% in March). Relatively speaking, Ferrari sells a lot of cars.

For those of us without $200,000+ to spend on a new 2-seater, we have the first Graph. Way out in front, the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang posted respective year-over-year improvements of .07% and 46.8%. Combined, the Camaro, Mustang, and Dodge Challenger - America's muscle car trio - performed better than all but 14 automakers in terms of overall March volume. Put another way, total American muscle car sales volume in the United States in March was greater than that of the whole Lexus brand, greater than the Chrysler brand, greater than Infiniti and Audi combined. Put another way, the Dodge Challenger wasn't half as successful in March as either the Ford or Chevrolet.

Oh, and Mazda sold 61 RX-8s. That's down 51.6% from March 2010. It's sad when such a sweet handler doesn't have the power or economy to compete; sadder still when it's attractive yet still in desperate need of a fresh design.

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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

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

Prefer to consider the Hyundai Equus a rival for the cars in this Graph of large luxury cars? At GoodCarBadCar.net the Equus is located amongst the midsize luxury cars on pricing and prestige grounds. In March, were the Equus located here instead of there, the large luxury car market would grow to 4867 units and the Equus's market share would be 4.95%, less than any other car in the segment. 

Instead, by boundaries which restrict the segment to more prestigious limos, the BMW 7-Series grabbed 22.2% of the market. Meanwhile, the Audi A8's market share grew from 9.9% in February to 12.1% in March.

Mercedes-Benz knows how to sell a big luxury sedan, for sure. But the SUVs... ah, now Mercedes-Benz really knows how to sell a big sport-ute. 2052 GL-Class and G-Wagens were sold in the U.S. in March, a figure which, together, out-performs the Cadillac Escalade. Sales of each Escalade variant fell in March. The EXT was worst off with a 6.3% decline.

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Small/Entry Luxury Car Sales And Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - March 2011

Poor Jaguar has it backwards. With lower prices, an automaker hopes to find higher volumes. Alas, the $72,700-$113,200 2011 Jaguar XJ - the Indo-Brit luxury automaker's flagship machine - easily out-sold the $52,500-$79,600 2011 Jaguar XF in March. XF sales plunged 60.4% year-over-year and are down 50.9% year-to-date when compared with the first quarter of 2010. Despite the XJ's 4530% increase over March 2010, the XF helped drag Jaguar down 11.1%, with a little assistance from the XK, also suffering from a serious bout of declinus salesus in March.

It's not all bad news among luxury cars, of course. The two most popular and most famous XF alternatives both posted substantial improvements in March. BMW 5-Series sales rose 55.6%. Mercedes-Benz E-Class sales grew by 1065 units.

Mercedes-Benz fared nicely with its smaller C-Class last month, too, although not well enough to catch the falling BMW 3-Series. C-Class sales were up 8.9% but still trailed the Infiniti G25/G37 (up 23.6%) and the invincible 3-Series (down 9.7%). The 3-Series is soon to be replaced. Even so, just that one BMW model was enough for BMW to out-sell Lincoln and Volvo.

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

The Honda Accord and Honda Civic came out of March 2011 looking like big winners in their respective classes. For the record, 441 of the Civic's 31,213 sales were Civic Hybrids. Overall, Civic sales were up 39% over March 2010, though Civic Hybrid sales fell 23.8%. As for the Accord, 2083 of its 33,616 sales were Accord Crosstours. Accord sales were up 15.4% as a whole, but Accord Crosstour sales dropped 19.5%. The Good Car Guy took a deep look at some of Honda's failures (and perceived failures) late last month.

Among the blue bunch, the competitive set typically called subcompacts, the Nissan Versa saw off a hard-charging Ford Fiesta to remain victorious in March. Versa sales dropped 19.4%, however, and are down 3.2% year-to-date. At this point in 2010, Ford wasn't selling the Fiesta. But Fiesta sales did rise 56.1% from February in a market that grew only 17%. 

The midsize car segment, though clearly the domain of Honda's Accord, the Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata, Chevrolet Malibu, and even the Toyota Prius, isn't immune to the wiles of the Subaru Outback. Sales of the Subaru SUVesque Legacyish wagon jumped from 7951 in February to 10,498 in March. This represents a 37.8% year-over-year bump. Moreover, the Legacy sedan was up 27.6%, adding 4450 to Subaru's total.

Just how hot was the Honda Accord in March? Combined sales of the Buick LaCrosse, Buick Lucerne, Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, Ford Taurus, Hyundai Azera, Nissan Maxima, and Toyota Avalon totalled 33,461 last month, 155 less than the total put up by the Accord. See it all in the Graphs below.

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Luxury Auto Market Share In America - March 2011

For graphic pleasure, and for the second month in what will hopefully become a long-running GoodCarBadCar.net chart, The Good Car Guy is displaying luxury auto brand market share as an extra on top of the U.S. Auto Sales By Brand list and the New Vehicle Market Share By Brand Graph. It's basically another way for Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Lexus to show how much of the premium sector is owned by.... Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Lexus. 

These three brands made up nearly half of all premium brand sales in March 2011. Acura, Cadillac, Audi, Infiniti, and Lincoln also come to play. Most of the others appear to be innocent bystanders. 

Mercedes-Benz market share among premium brands grew from 15.12% in February to 17% in March 2011. BMW was pretty much level. Lexus turned up the wick, heading from less than 13% in February to 15.6% in March. Acura suffered slightly but Cadillac lost plenty.

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Monday, April 4, 2011

Popular Car Market Share In America - March 2011

America's popular vehicles were actually a little less popular in March 2011 than in February. The rest of the market made up 59.8% of overall sales; up from 59.7% in February. 4.3% of all new vehicles sold in the United States in March were Ford F-Series pickups. The Honda Accord, the best-selling car in America last month, was way back of the F-Series with 2.7% market share, still a pretty fair improvement for the Accord compared with February.

So far this year, through the first quarter of 2011, Ford has sold 126,627 F-Series trucks. While you'll be hearing plenty about Ford's ability to finally sell the fuel-efficient Fiesta in high numbers - a truth which I'm not encouraging you to ignore - what you won't necessarily hear about is Ford's ability to sell more Escapes in one month than they can sell Fiestas in three months; or Ford's ability to do the same with the Fusion. That doesn't make the Fiesta unsuccessful, not at all. The littlest Ford ranked among America's best-selling cars in March. But you don't see the Fiesta in this Graph, what with its .785% market share. What you do see are three Fords, all of which are bigger than the Fiesta and use significantly more fuel, and 17 other vehicles, all of which are bigger than the Fiesta, as well.

Has America embraced the subcompact culture of fuel efficiency and easy parkability? Based on this chart, er... no. Only one-fifth of the vehicles shown below will be displayed in GoodCarBadCar.net's Small Car chart. One of those cars, the Volkswagen Jetta, isn't really that small. The Hyundai Elantra is officially classified as a midsize car. Both are, however, capable of putting up stellar fuel economy numbers, as are the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, and Chevrolet Cruze.

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Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - March 2011

Every one of America's 30 best-selling luxury vehicles posted gains over February 2011 volumes, every vehicle except for three Cadillacs and one BMW. Although Cadillac SRX and CTS sales improved dramatically in year-over-year comparisons with March 2010, the declines from February were 23.3% and 35.3%, respectively, in a market which grew 17%. Overall, slightly less then one-third of the 30 best-selling luxury vehicles in America posted falling year-over-year sales, the BMW 3-Series' 9.7% (explainable) drop sticking out like a sore thumb with red font in the #2 spot.

17 of the 30 most popular luxury vehicles in March 2011 were traditional passenger cars. You might say the $29,120 2011 Lexus CT200h, a hatchback available only with a hybrid powertrain, is the least traditional of those 17. The majority may be cars, but the victor is the Lexus RX350/Lexus RX450h luxury crossover family. RX sales rose 6.7% over March 2010; up 31% from February, way out-performing the overall market.

Just about 1800 units back of the RX is the increasingly successful Infiniti G. Year-over-year, sales of the G jumped 23.6% in March and were up 27.6% from the previous month. 1448 of the G's 7009 March 2011 sales were G37 Coupes. Along with the G25 and G37, there are seven other Japanese vehicles in this group of America's 30 favourite luxury autos. Half the cars in this list wear European badges. That leaves one Korean and six Detroit machines.

Rank
Car
Status
March 2011
Last Month
March 2010
#1
Lexus RX
↔
8600
6567
8060
#2
BMW 3-Series
↑
8503
4872
9413
#3
Infiniti G
↑
7009
5492
5671
#4
Mercedes-Benz C-Class
↑
6542
4479
6006
#5
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
↑
6107
4203
5042
#6
BMW 5-Series
↑
4491
4212
2886
#7
Cadillac SRX
↓
4221
5502
4090
#8
Acura MDX
↑
4113
3845
3281
#9
Acura TL
↑
3995
2447
3917
#10
Cadillac CTS
↓
3904
6033
2870
#11
Lexus ES
↑
3732
2598
3860
#12
Audi A4
↓
3428
2770
3058
#13
Lincoln MKZ
↑
3138
1775
2456
#14
Lexus IS
↑
2956
2081
3157
#15
Acura TSX
↓
2810
2794
3072
#16
Mercedes-Benz M-Class
↑
2792
1924
2154
#17
Hyundai Genesis
↓
2664
2441
2145
#18
BMW X3
↔
2648
1987
716
#19
Lincoln MKX
↑
2267
1636
2032
#20
Lexus CT200h
↑
2199
-----
-----
#21
Audi Q5
↑
2083
1539
1701
#22
BMW X5
↓
2010
2646
2536
#23
Cadillac Escalade
↓
1982
2202
2094
#24
Mercedes-Benz GLK
↓
1963
1853
2333
#25
Mercedes-Benz GL-Class
↔
1953
1472
1881
#26
Volvo S60
↑
1952
1247
1
#27
Cadillac DTS
↓
1580
1512
2146
#28
Audi A5
↑
1388
1142
1675
#29
Land Rover 
Range Rover Sport
↑
1374
984
1033
#30
Volvo XC60
↓
1369
1184
1263
Source: Manufacturers And Automotive News Data Center

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - March 2012
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - April 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - February 2011
Luxury Auto Market Share In America - March 2011
Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America - March 2011
Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In America - March 2011
Large Luxury Car & Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - March 2011
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