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Showing significant improvements over February 2009, the UK new car market displayed signs of restoration in February 2011 despite a 7.7% drop from February of last year. The SMMT expects an uptick in motor vehicle sales in the latter half of the 2011, but we should expect declines in year-over-year figures over the next few months. February is not the ideal month for selling cars in Great Britain - just compare the best-selling car's total this month (the Golf's 2709) with the best-selling car's total from last month (the Focus's 7582) for evidence of that fact.Most striking in the table below is the fact that half the list is made up of Vauxhalls. Two Vauxhall MPVs, the moderately size Zafira and small Meriva, hopped into the Top 10, a feat not seen since GoodCarBadCar.net began tracking UK Best Sellers. The family-sized Insignia, small Astra, and smaller Corsa built a track to the top, yet none could out-perform the interminable sixth-generation Volkswagen Golf. Ranked fifteenth in overall U.S. car volume in February, the Ford Focus isn't the force in America that it is in the United Kingdom. This could change when America's Focus is finally switched out for the updated Euro Focus that's remained a dominant force for Ford's UK success. The Ford Fiesta, last year's best-selling car in the UK, was not even among America's Top 20 Best-Selling Cars.
The vast majority of GoodCarBadCar.net readers aren't from Canada. The vast majority of Canadian GoodCarBadCar.net readers aren't from Nova Scotia. Nevertheless, in deference to the homeland, this post is all for GoodCarBadCar.net's Halifax readers, with some gossip that might interest observers from away.In the last couple years, an upheaval in the U.S. automotive industry wreaked havoc on the dealer networks of General Motors and Chrysler. This resulted in Carroll Pontiac Buick GMC Hummer closing up on the Bedford Highway and Forbes Chevrolet Cadillac permanently vacating the premises on Portland Street. McPhee, the owner of Forbes as well as its own GM dealership and Halifax Chrysler, was royally messed up. Steele Chrysler moved in to take over Bayers Lake-based Halifax Chrysler. This you know.
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America's 20 best-selling vehicles were slightly more dominant in February 2011 than in January and are ever so slightly more car-oriented, as well. 13 of the 20 most popular vehicles in February are cars. That's up from 12 in January. Still the most successful seller, the Ford F-Series' market share dropped from 4.4% in January to 3.8% in February. Still, 38 out of every thousand automobiles sold is.... impressive, to say the least. F-Series sales were up 14.1%. The best-selling utility vehicle in the USA was only the eighth best-selling vehicle overall. Honda CR-V sales jumped 61.4% in February. Only three other utility vehicles found their way onto the list of America's 20 Best-Selling Vehicles in February 2011.As for cars, there's no doubt the $19,820-$26,675 2011 Toyota Camry is helping Toyota get its groove back. 25.5% of the Toyota brand's year-over-year increase came as a result of 10,660-sale addition in Camry sales.
Falling off this month's list of America's 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles are the Lexus GX460 and the Good 12-winning Porsche Cayenne. BMW's 3-Series fell from second to fifth on a 28.5% year-over-year drop and a 15.5% drop from January 2011. BMW was the most popular luxury brand in the United States in February, helped by a strong 5-Series performance (ranked 7th below, up 86.6% from February 2010) and the BMW X3, up 466.1% now that the appealing second-generation SAV is available.All these stories seem small when contrasted with Cadillac's strong performance. The CTS posted a 124.3% sales increase and came within spitting distance of being crowned America's most popular luxury vehicle in February. Right behind the Good 12-winning CTS was the Cadillac SRX and its 55.3% jump. Back in 16th and 24th you'll find Cadillacs. One can imagine how strong Cadillac would be if the STS was a viable 5-Series/E-Class alternative: STS sales were up 56.3%, but that only indicates a 187-unit climb to 519 measly sales. (Cadillac failed to sell a single STS in Canada in February.)Of course, Cadillac's terrific performance in February was perhaps overshadowed just a little by Buick. The Good Car Guy doesn't include Buick as a premium nameplate eligible for this table, but Cars.com's Kicking Tires blog (for whom The Good Car Guy contributed this week) looked at Buick's February beating of Lexus in some detail.
It's true, The Good Car Guy covers truck sales more exhaustively in a bar Graph later on in the month. For now, this display of America's five (six, sort of) best-selling trucks is similarly telling.Ford's unbeatable F-Series was up 14.1% in February. The Dodge Ram increased by an astounding 81.6%. Though Toyota Tundra sales jumped 28.2%, Tacoma sales fell 5.4%.Then there's General Motors. Together, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra were up 66.3% on a 60.1% Silverado increase and an 85.8% Sierra bump.Through two months of 2011 the GM full-size duo is ahead of Ford's F-Series by 8868 sales. The Dodge Ram is up 53% on the year but its two-month total is less than the F-Series and Silverado found in February. America's Top 5 Best-Selling Trucks from February 2011 can be seen in the chart below.
The Toyota Highlander, America's tenth-best-selling SUV in January, was knocked off the list of America's Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs in February. Its replacement? The $28,190 2011 Ford Explorer. Moving past the Kia Sorento, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and Chevrolet Traverse, the new Explorer isn't quite back to its glory days of big cheese status. Nevertheless, combined with the Escape, Edge, Expedition, and Flex, Ford's Explorer is part of a 42,982 SUV juggernaut which, without Ford's cars and trucks, out-sold all but six automakers in February.Year-over-year gains were made by every single member of the best-selling SUV list in February. Some of the utility vehicles in the table below came close to doubling last year's volume: the Equinox was up 91.5%; the RAV4 was up 84.8%; and the Explorer, of course, more than doubled its volume with a 139.2% jump. Of course, none of the utility vehicles found herein are members of GoodCarBadCar.net's The Good 12. Sales of the Jeep Wrangler rose 28% to 7636.America's 10 Best-Selling SUVs in February 2010 are listed below. Rank | SUV | Status | February 2011 | Last Month | February 2010 |
#1 | Honda CR-V | ↔ | 19,096 | 16,339 | 11,828 |
#2 | Ford Escape | ↔ | 18,005 | 13,973 | 15,156 |
#3 | Chevrolet Equinox | ↔ | 15,434 | 12,847 | 8061 |
#4 | Toyota RAV4 | ↔ | 12,562 | 11,196 | 6799 |
#5 | Nissan Rogue | ↔ | 11,427 | 9423 | 6143 |
#6 | Ford Edge | ↔ | 10,138 | 8918 | 8694 |
#7 | Ford Explorer | ↑ | 9657 | 7351 | 4038 |
#8 | Chevrolet Traverse | ↓ | 9533 | 8605 | 5882 |
#9 | Jeep Grand Cherokee | ↔ | 8667 | 7612 | 6614 |
#10 | Kia Sorento | ↓ | 8641 | 8116 | 8366 |
