U.S. SMALL LUXURY SUV SALES - APRIL 2010

Is the Cadillac SRX a small SUV? For that matter, are any vehicles in the Graph below true sport-utility vehicles? Though the 2010 Cadillac SRX seems like a perfect competitor for the Lincoln MKX and the MKX will be seen in the Midsize Luxury SUV Sales Graph, the MKX's donor vehicle, the Ford Edge, is clearly a midsize vehicle whilst the Cadillac SRX is priced squarely against. Thus, the SRX appears in the Sales Stats below and absolutely crushes the competition. If the Lincoln MKX were posted here too, it'd be crushed as well.

Not that the SRX is a GoodCarBadCar.net favourite. The Mercedes-Benz GLK350 is achingly gorgeous; the Audi Q5 a perfect blend of crossover utility and Audi Avantesque style. Cadillac's SRX? Nice, but a bit overweight, a bit cumbersome, a bit too much not a Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon. Still, the SRX is pulling in customers for a reason - for plenty of reasons - and that's a very good thing for Cadillac, indeed. In April 2010, the SRX was Cadillac's best-selling vehicle.

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U.S. SALES OF LARGE SUVs - APRIL 2010

You need space. For your peeps, your stuff, the stuff belonging to your peeps, and for yourself. Sometimes you need to tow things. Every now and then a bit of extra ground clearance would come in handy. Since we're being open and honest, you might as well admit to requiring luxurious surroundings. Nothing ostentatious; but a bit of leather here and there won't do any harm. Your budget isn't limitless by any stretch of the imagination, but you've got some coin to play with.

Eight vehicles are available in North America to meet your needs. Ignore the differences between Chevrolet and GMC and you're down to six vehicles. Think of the Chevrolet Suburban and Chevrolet Tahoe in the same synapse and there are but five vehicles worth considering. Five good vehicles. Five SUVs. Five large sport-utility vehicles. Five jumbonormous sport-utility vehicles. 

General Motors owns the Large SUV segment. It's almost as though GM is the only automaker with the PIN which grants access to the category and the company collects royalties each time a rival automaker wishes to gain access to the PIN. Pretenders to the throne are actually pretty nice vehicles, even the dreadfully slow-selling Kia Borrego. Yet three-quarters of the market belongs to General Motors.

And before you, oh Prius driver, get up in the face of a large SUV owner to lambast him (or her) for driving a jumbo SUV, make sure he's not carrying around six or seven passengers. Guzzle a lot of fuel they may, but a large SUV with a soccer squad in the back is far more efficient than most small vehicles with one or two travellers.

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U.S. SALES OF MIDSIZE SUVs - APRIL 2010

As the first of what will be an ongoing publication, this Graph measuring the Sales Stats of Midsize SUVs was a l'il bit difficult to organize. The Nissan Xterra is no competitor for the Buick Enclave. Yet the Nissan Xterra could easily be seen as a rival of the Toyota 4Runner; which would be an obvious contender for conquest sales of the Toyota Highlander; which is undoubtedly a competitor of the Chevrolet Traverse; the Traverse being a platform-mate of the Buick Enclave. Does this mean the Xterra and Enclave are cross-shopped? Uh... no. But it does land them in the same Graph on GoodCarBadCar.net. The game of "Include Me/Include Me Not" was like picking petals off dandelions - random but not unintentional. 

The Lambda platform at General Motors features the top-of-the-line Buick Enclave (4,599 sales in April) as well as GMC's Acadia (4,877 April sales) and the volume leader, Chevrolet's Traverse. With over 9,000 sales, the Chevrolet Traverse is one of three in the group below to also be members of April's Best-Selling SUVs In America list. Other than the Traverse, Honda Pilot, and Ford Edge, six other major sellers came from the Small SUV category. Then there's the Jeep Wrangler, a traditional SUV which GoodCarBadCar.net will include in a Niche Vehicle sales Graph in a short while.

Enough of the digression. Many of America's favourite SUVs of the past, a few of America's favourite current SUVs, and many of America's least-favourite SUVs are exposed in the Sales Stats below.

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U.S. SALES OF SMALL SUVs - APRIL 2010

Other than the fact that the Ford Escape, even without help from the Mercury Mariner and Mazda Tribute, beats all other entrants and actually became America's best-selling overall SUV in April, the most astounding fact from April's Small SUV Sales Graph is the continued excellence of the 2011 Kia Sorento. The Sorento is an inexpensive SUV with just a bit more umph in its stature than most other vehicles in the chart. That it sold well initially wasn't a surprise, that it's continuing to sell well shouldn't surprise either, given its merits. But a Kia SUV in the Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In America group? Few saw that one comin'.

Grouping these vehicles in a pie chart was no longer feasible as GoodCarBadCar.net's move towards Sales Stats publishing dominance requires a completely thorough approach. This means more vehicles included. For April, this means a stretch to the oft-derided Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot. 

So, who wants to go off-roading? Ha, nobody driving any of these vehicles. Instead, let's just check out the Graph.

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U.S. AMERICAN MUSCLE CAR SALES - APRIL 2010

Time was GoodCarBadCar.net regularly posted the results of American muscle car sales on a monthly basis. As the site moves towards becoming the web location for auto Sales Stats, it's obvious that the thriving segment must make its return.

Were it not for the Chevrolet Corvette and Dodge Viper in the Graph below, it might be okay to call this the Pony Car Sales article. Perhaps the term, "sports car" would be more apt if each vehicle was well-suited to the racetrack. One can't deny, however, that each contender generates significant muscle, is all-American, and is also a car. Thus, we have the American Muscle Car Sales Graph featuring the indubitable Ford Mustang, the indefatigable Chevrolet Corvette, the sometimes impressive Dodge Challenger, the always aggressive Chevrolet Camaro, and the virile Dodge Viper. The Sales Stats posted today reflect sales of these vehicles in the USA for the month of April 2010.

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U.S. MINIVAN SALES IN APRIL 2010

Nobody grows up with posters of minivans plastered on their bedroom walls. Then again, nobody grows up with posters of midsize sedans on their bedroom walls, either. We mature, we change, we see life for what it is. And for some of us, life equals children. Lots and lots of children. The quantity of children which requires three rows of seating, preferably with enough space to separate children if need be. 

Americans have not taken to the latest minivan trend as strongly as first anticipated. The Mazda 5 and Kia Rondo put the mini in minivan; emphasizing fuel savings and a modicum of space efficiency. Sales are decent, but it almost seems as though a greater field of competitors in the 5 and Rondo's segment would be a help, rather than a hindrance, to their success. All publicity is good publicity, right? 

At the top of the heap, the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan blend together in a stronghold the size of Fort Knox. The competition is either relatively unknown (Kia Sedona), comparitively expensive (Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna), or.... well, not a Chrysler (Volkswagen Routan). This Minivan Sales Graph will be repeated for Canada later on in April before becoming a mainstay on GoodCarBadCar.net, so check back to see how the 2011 Toyota Sienna challenges the Odyssey next month. FYI, of the Chrysler/Dodge duo's 23,802 sales in April, 13,367 came from Chrysler.

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WHY THE 2011 TOYOTA SIENNA SWAGGER WAGON AD IS PERFECT

Let's you and I go on the record: I'm not in the market for a minivan. And you? You know the 2011 Toyota Sienna would be the rational choice, but the Toyota Highlander holds more appeal, the Mazda CX-9 is gorgeous, and you could cram your stuff in a 2010 Toyota 4Runner, too. Hey, it's a Good 12 Supersize winner - the Sienna ain't and likely won't be.

Strangely enough, certain crossovers and SUVs are collecting a minivan-like image problem. Why would you drive a large vehicle with three rows of seats, no off-road capability, and no all-wheel drive.... unless you had children? Does the purchase of a Mazda CX-9 provide you with less of a Soccer Mom image than the purchase of a 2011 Toyota Sienna? Doubtful. 

Toyota has now come to the realization, however, that their minivan's image problem might as well be something on which to capitalize. So a minivan is a great vehicle for parents? Uh... great! Minivans are the official vehicle of the suburbs? S'fine with suburbanites! Minivans transport children to playdates? Good, they do it better than anything else! 

This is the message behind the 2011 Toyota Sienna's Swagger Wagon video promo. The official version is nearly up to 400,000 views on YouTube. 2 minutes and 35 seconds of minivan humour is the ideal way to start your day. Will this ad have any impact on the Sienna's middling success in the U.S. Marketplace? I can see how it would. Rather than focus solely on the Sienna's unexpectedly dramatic appearance or its completely anticipated crash test perfection or diverting the focus away from its instrinsic minivan nature, Toyota is playing it up. 

It's a minivan - deal with it. People will choose the 2011 Toyota Sienna because they are people who drop their children off at school, because they take their kids to hockey practice at 6am, because they have kids who spill cheerios down in the seat cracks, because their stereo will play Sharon, Lois & Bram more often than Rihanna. Why not advertise directly at these people rather than think up a Sienna ad that would appeal to me and finding out I'm not your target market? Click through the jump for a look at the Swagger Wagon video.





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