Domestics vs. Imports - U.S. Auto Market Share Through Three Quarters Of 2012

American Auto Brands Market Share
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Pie charts: an essential ingredient in any recipe for successful sales analysis. Today we're looking at the U.S. auto industry in the first three quarters of 2012. How does the volume generated by America's ten automobile brands compare with that which is achieved by Japan's eleven brands, South Korea's two brands, and Europe's seemingly countless logos?

Through nine months, 45% of the American automobile market was owned by Detroit: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Jeep, Lincoln, and Ram. Of those 4.87 million new vehicle sales, fully one-third were Fords. Another 29% were Chevrolets. Dodge and Ram combined for 12.5%.

U.S. Sept. YTD Sales: All 265 Vehicles Ranked

European Auto Brands Market Share

Just under one out of every ten new vehicle sales in the U.S. so far this year was of the European variety, at least in name: Audi, Bentley, BMW, Fiat, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Mini, Porsche, smart, Volkswagen, Volvo, and ANDC estimates for Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, Maybach, and Rolls-Royce. Volkswagen accounted for more than three out of every ten Euro brand sales. Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche delivered half of the 1 million European auto brand sales in the United States this year.

Asian Auto Brands Market Share

Asian brands are responsible for a larger portion of the U.S. automobile landscape in 2012 than American brands. Hyundai and Kia account for 19.5% of all Asian brand sales in the United States. That's a bit more than Honda but quite a bit less than Toyota's 26.9%. Of course, Honda also sells Acuras (2.3% of all Asian brand sales in America this year), while Toyota also markets the Lexus and Scion brands, which together accounted for 4.5% of all Asian brand sales in the U.S.

The four accompanying charts go into some detail explaining all this. Click any of the four for a larger view. For a look at specific cars, use the first dropdown menu at GCBC's Sales Stats home to select a brand and then a model. Brands are ranked by U.S. volume every month, most recently with up-to-date September 2012 sales figures.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings - September 2012 YTD
Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - September 2012
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings - 2011 Year End
U.S. Auto Sales Market Share Charts - 2011 Year End

September 2012 Sporty Car Sales And Premium Sporty Car Sales In America

Germany's two-seat roadster/coupe class found 1028 U.S. buyers in September 2012. Despite fast-rising sales of the new 981-gen mid-engined roadster, the latest Porsche Boxster isn't the best-selling car in its group. Mercedes-Benz SLK sales shot up 116% to 416 units in September. The Boxster did outsell the Audi TT and BMW Z4 last month. Z4 sales were up 34% in September but are down 33% through the first three quarters of 2012.

Detroit's three muscle cars, the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang, and Dodge Challenger, all reported U.S. sales declines compared with September 2011. Volkswagen's GTI and R variants accounted for 46% of all Golf sales in September. Through nine months, the GTI and Golf R have brought about 50.3% of all Golf sales.

U.S. Sept. YTD Sales: All 265 Vehicles Ranked

Sporty Car Sales Chart
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Scion's tC and the Hyundai Veloster, both of which are less aggressive front-wheel-drive warm hatches, sell more often than the sporty Golfs, but do so at a lower price. Since the FR-S's first full month on sale in June, Scion tC sales have risen 33.7%.

BMW 6-Series sales continue to rise far above what BMW managed with their top-end coupe last year. The introduction of a new 6-Series variant certainly helps. BMW's handsome 6-Series Gran Coupe is priced from $76,000. Overall, the 6-Series outsold the Porsche 911 by 100 units in September.

Mercedes-Benz's SL-Class, a vehicle which lacks a sedan four-door coupe version to boost volume, sold on 621 occasions in September 2012, ever so slightly more often than the 6er. It seems reasonable to think 6-Series sales will rise further once the Gran Coupe becomes a more common sight. Then again, the 640i Gran Coupe costs $2700 more than a 740i while the 650i costs $200 more than a 750i.

Premium Sporty Car Sales Chart

They may be different buyers, the ones who're after a 7-Series and the ones who want a Gran Coupe. But presumably the new Gran Coupe buyer was the buyer of a 6-Series Coupe, 7-Series sedan, or 5-Series sedan in prior years. The 6-Series has been added to this post in order to compare sales with other luxury cars.

Historical monthly and yearly sales results for 282 different vehicles can be accessed through the first dropdown menu at GCBC's Sales Stats home or, for non-mobile users, near the top right of this page. Click any model from the tables below to go directly to its own specific sales results page.

After the jump you'll find detailed September and year-to-date sales info for a variety of different vehicles and vehicle types. The two accompanying charts rank cars by volume rather than listing them alphabetically; click either chart for a larger view.

Sporty Car	September 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
Audi A5	1594	+ 25.6%	13,005	+ 10.9%
Audi TT	174	- 17.1%	1686	+ 1.4%
BMW 1-Series	515	- 23.6%	5535	- 15.8%
BMW Z4	187	+ 33.6%	1952	- 33.4%
Chevrolet Camaro	5670	- 18.9%	68,968	- 1.8%
Chevrolet Corvette	1351	+ 17.8%	10,570	+ 2.9%
Dodge Challenger	3230	- 3.0%	33,623	+ 11.5%
Ford Mustang	4439	- 12.2%	66,821	+ 18.0%
Honda CR-Z	335	- 37.6%	3461	- 66.0%
Hyundai Veloster	3020	+ 262%	28,338	+ 3298%
Infiniti G37 Coupe/Convertible	870	- 20.1%	10,286	- 11.6%
Mazda MX-5 Miata	505	+ 16.6%	5081	+ 8.4%
Mercedes-Benz SLK	416	+ 116%	3288	+ 29.7%
Mini Convertible	306	- 31.5%	3792	- 5.1%
Mini Coupe	184	-----	2206	-----
Mini Roadster	194	-----	1596	-----
Mitsubishi Eclipse	52	- 81.2%	1099	- 84.3%
Nissan 370Z	436	- 7.0%	6099	+ 0.3%
Porche Boxster	236	+ 84.4%	1599	- 1.1%
Porsche Cayman	15	- 84.0%	444	- 58.7%
Scion FR-S	1133	0.0%	7465	0.0%
Scion tC	2186	+ 24.8%	18,136	+ 4.6%
Subaru BRZ	508	-----	2718	-----
Subaru Impreza WRX	1079	- 38.0%	9529	- 2.9%
Volkswagen Eos	399	- 28.5%	5198	- 15.7%
Volkswagen GTI	1162	- 2.9%	13,260	+ 0.5%
Volkswagen Golf R	330	-----	3051	-----
Volvo C70	211	- 33.4%	3741	- 7.2%

Premium Sporty Car	September 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
Audi R8	50	- 48.5%	654	- 23.9%
BMW 6-Series	609	+ 80.2%	5482	+ 147%
Jaguar XK	153	- 8.9%	1233	- 8.5%
Lexus LFA	4	0.0%	33	- 25.0%
Mercedes-Benz CL-Class	45	- 29.7%	535	- 24.2%
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class	621	+ 827%	3249	+ 174%
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG	37	+ 48.0%	706	+ 55.5%
Nissan GT-R	119	+ 11.2%	968	- 12.2%
Porsche 911	509	+ 1.0%	6654	+ 39.9%

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.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Sporty Car & Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - October 2012
Sporty & Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - August 2012
Sporty & Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - September 2011
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings - September 2012
Small/Entry Luxury Car Sales In America - September 2012

September 2012 Minivan Sales And Truck Sales In America

The Chrysler Group's two minivans grabbed 49% of America's minivan market in September 2012. Ranked first and third in the segment through nine months, the Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country have delivered 37,949 more sales for the parent company this year than the pair did in the first three quarters of 2011. Sales of the two are up 24% so far this year.

Dodge has also sold 5279 Ram Cargo Vans in 2012. The Windsor, Ontario, plant where these vans are assembled also produces the virtually identical Volkswagen Routan. Sales of the VW version are down 21% to 8246. The Routan is Volkswagen of America's third-lowest-volume product, ahead of the Touareg and Eos.

Minivan Sales Chart
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There are more Americans who buy or lease pickup trucks than there are Americans who buy or lease minivans. This much you knew. In September, there were more Americans who registered a new Ford F-Series than there were total new minivan registrations. Ford has already sold 50K more F-Series pickups than in all of 2009, an admittedly dreadful year. Through nine months, the F-Series is only 5166 sales behind last year's ten-month total and is less than 10K sales off 2010's eleven-month total.

So, with F-Series sales rising, does Ford need the Ranger? Volume isn't the only line in the answer key. The profit earned per unit is a similarly important part of the equation. On simple volume terms, it's interesting to note that through the first three quarters of 2011, Ford had sold 466,176 Rangers and F-Series pickups. Through the first nine months of 2012, in a market that's grown 14.5%, Ford has sold 463,733 F-Series trucks, not much less. Let's assume the F-Series is the more profitable of the two truck lines - the consumer certainly pays more. With the Ranger's North American demise, we know Ford no longer needs to market two trucks. Isn't it reasonable to assume that in spite of the truck enthusiast's moaning, Ford is coping fine without the Ranger?

U.S. Sept. YTD Sales: All 265 Vehicles Ranked

Yes, the market's up 14.5% this year. And yes, when considering the success of an automaker, there are factors besides volume at play. But Ford sales are up 5.6% this year despite the loss of 39,671 Crown Victoria sales and 30,642 Ranger sales. How has the company handled those losses? To begin with, Ford has sold an extra 47,345 F-Series trucks.

Pickup Truck Sales Chart

Historical monthly and yearly sales results for 282 different vehicles can be accessed through the first dropdown menu at GCBC's Sales Stats home or, for non-mobile users, near the top right of this page. Click any model from the tables below to go directly to its own specific sales results page.

After the jump you'll find detailed September and year-to-date sales info for eight minivans and twice that many trucks, including multiple defunct models. You'll also find the Escalade EXT in the Escalade's total in this large luxury SUV post. The two accompanying charts rank trucks and minivans by volume rather than listing them alphabetically; click either chart for a larger view.

Truck	September 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
Cadillac Escalade EXT	188	+ 8.0%	1348	- 4.7%
Chevrolet Avalanche	2030	+ 9.1%	17,149	+ 22.6%
Chevrolet Colorado	2833	+ 30.5%	32,608	+ 36.0%
Chevrolet Silverado	36,425	- 16.6%	298,200	+ 0.6%
Dodge Dakota	8	- 98.9%	488	- 95.4%
Dodge Ram	25,973	+ 5.9%	213,593	+ 20.0%
Ford F-Series	55,077	+ 1.2%	463,733	+ 11.4%
Ford Ranger	93	- 98.7%	19,146	- 61.5%
GMC Canyon	555	+ 21.2%	7618	- 0.2%
GMC Sierra	13,636	- 1.9%	112,181	+ 4.5%
Honda Ridgeline	1060	+ 51.4%	10,229	+ 58.0%
Nissan Frontier	4354	+ 0.5%	44,814	+ 19.7%
Nissan Titan	1792	- 21.9%	16,406	+ 6.9%
Suzuki Equator	157	- 16.0%	1426	- 10.8%
Toyota Tacoma	12,176	+ 48.9%	102,872	+ 30.8%
Toyota Tundra	9338	+ 39.5%	74,972	+ 22.8%

Minivan	September 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
Chrysler Town & Country	10,207	- 1.9%	87,569	+ 21.8%
Dodge Grand Caravan	13,488	+ 32.2%	108,127	+ 26.0%
Honda Odyssey	11,365	+ 28.9%	97,824	+ 28.7%
Kia Sedona	1301	- 45.6%	14,454	- 24.9%
Mazda 5	832	- 51.4%	9693	- 39.4%
Nissan Quest	1190	+ 39.7%	14,514	+ 67.8%
Toyota Sienna	8902	- 0.8%	87,187	+ 4.8%
Volkswagen Routan	822	- 28.7%	8246	- 20.8%

Source: Manufacturers & ANDC

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Truck Sales And Minivan Sales In America - October 2012
Truck Sales & Minivan Sales In America - August 2012
Truck Sales & Minivan Sales In America - September 2011
Top 5 Best-Selling Trucks In America - September 2012
Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - September 2012
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings - September 2012
Commercial Van Sales In America - September 2012

September 2012 Commercial Van Sales In America

Click Van Sales Chart For A Larger View

60% of the 19,876 commercial vans sold in the United States in September 2012 were Fords. Of FoMoCo's 11,965 E-Series/Transit Connect sales, 75% were of the larger E-Series variety.

General Motors' two vans combined to hold 25% market share, down from 34% in August. Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Chrysler - via the Ram Cargo Van - accounted for 15% of the commercial/cargo/personnel carrier vans sold in America last month.

In total, these seven vans were responsible for 1.7% of the overall new vehicle market. That's down from 1.9% in August and down from 2.1% in September of last year. Blame the Chevrolet Express. Year-over-year volume slid 49%, or 3675 units.

U.S. Sept. YTD Sales: All 265 Vehicles Ranked

Historical monthly and yearly sales results for 282 different vehicles can be accessed through the first dropdown menu at GCBC's Sales Stats home or, for non-mobile users, near the top right of this page. Click any model from the tables below to go directly to its own specific sales results page. You can also click the accompanying chart to see vans ranked by September 2012 volume.

Van	September 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
Chevrolet Express	3881	- 48.6%	57,886	+ 12.0%
Ford E-Series	8952	+ 2.8%	93,942	+ 5.3%
Ford Transit Connect	3013	+ 15.4%	25,918	+ 12.2%
GMC Savana	1005	+ 18.8%	17,259	+ 31.8%
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter	1794	+ 0.8%	15,402	+ 23.7%
Nissan NV	798	+ 31.5%	7117	+ 134%
Ram Cargo Van	433	+ 223%	5279	+ 3810%

Source: Manufacturers & ANDC

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Commercial Van Sales In America - October 2012
Commercial Van Sales In America - August 2012
Commercial Van Sales In America - July 2012
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings - September 2012

September 2012 Large Luxury Car Sales And Large Luxury SUV Sales In America

Sales of the Jaguar XJ, America's 208th-best-selling vehicle, are down 6% this year. XJ sales last year were the highest they'd been since 2005. 2011 year-end XJ volume was, however, down 50% from '04 levels.

The BMW 7-Series, often the monthly winner in the U.S. large luxury category, fell to sixth in its seven car class in September 2012. 7-Series sales plunged 47% year-over-year. Monthly volume has been inconsistent all year long.

Large Luxury Car Sales Chart
Click Either Chart For Larger View

Audi A8 sales shot up 34% last month but remain off last year's pace. A8 volume last year was higher than it had been since 2004. The Lexus LS has also taken a hit this year, but that was expected. A new LS will redeem some of the big Lexus's market share. The LS was 9145-units stronger than the next-best Mercedes-Benz S-Class in 2007.

Update: September's large luxury results now include the BMW 6-Series. The Gran Coupe may not offer the lounging capacity of a long-wheelbase S-Class, but on pricing grounds, it's far beyond traditional midsize alternatives. Keep in mind, the 6-Series remains a part of the premium sporty car sales breakdown.

U.S. Sept. YTD Sales: All 265 Vehicles Ranked

The S-Class was America's best-selling large luxury car in September, although sales of the biggest Benz sedan slid 36% last month and are down 7.5% this year. Conversely, the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class is also America's best-selling large luxury SUV. But GL-Class sales, though down 23% in September, are up 2% this year. The GL is 1121 units ahead of the Escalade family. It's perhaps not wise to expect the upcoming fourth-generation Land Rover Range Rover to sell like an Escalade or GL, but a Range Rover increase nevertheless seems predictable.

Large Luxury SUV Sales Chart

Only six of these 15 luxury flagships on sale in America posted year-over-year sales increases in September 2012. America's new vehicle market was 12.8% better than it was a year ago. So far this year, the large luxury car category is down 3.9%. America's large luxury SUV category is up just 1%.

Historical monthly and yearly sales results for 282 different vehicles can be accessed through the first dropdown menu at GCBC's Sales Stats home or, for non-mobile users, near the top right of this page. Click any model from the tables below to go directly to its specific sales results page.

After the jump you'll find detailed September and year-to-date sales info for six cars and eight SUVs. Smaller and less expensive cars and SUVs were profiled earlier. You'll find big cars like the Hyundai Equus and Cadillac XTS there. The two accompanying charts rank cars by volume rather than listing alphabetically; click any of them for a larger view.

Large Luxury Car	September 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
Audi A8	551	+ 34.1%	3970	- 5.0%
BMW 6-Series	609	+ 80.2%	5482	+ 147%
BMW 7-Series	464	- 46.6%	8103	+ 4.6%
Jaguar XJ	422	- 8.7%	3937	- 6.3%
Lexus LS	558	- 23.5%	4916	- 22.8%
Mercedes-Benz S-Class	925	- 36.1%	8214	- 7.5%
Porsche Panamera	606	+ 17.9%	5984	+ 15.4%

Large Luxury SUV	September 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
Cadillac Escalade & Escalade ESV/EXT	1696	- 29.7%	16,437	- 7.0%
Infiniti QX56	1105	- 8.4%	9490	+ 5.4%
Land Rover Range Rover	564	- 26.8%	6054	- 16.9%
Lexus LX570	372	+ 40.4%	3760	+ 62.6%
Lincoln Navigator	846	+ 28.2%	5822	+ 3.5%
Mercedes-Benz G-Class	83	- 30.3%	751	- 24.7%
Mercedes-Benz GL-Class	1960	- 22.9%	17,558	+ 2.1%
Toyota Land Cruiser	307	+ 133%	2074	+ 69.2%

Source: Manufacturers & ANDC

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Large Luxury Car & SUV Sales In America - October 2012
Large Luxury Car & SUV Sales In America - August 2012
Large Luxury Car & SUV Sales In America - September 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - September 2012
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings - September 2012
Small/Entry & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - September 2012
Small & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - September 2012