Escaping The Dead Zone

The dead zone between mainstream and entry level premium is the automotive equivalent of the friend zone, an area which no brand wants to occupy. You cars are generally nicer than those of regular mainstream brands and correspondingly priced a little higher than the popular competition. Your badge isn't worth much though and therefore your sales aren't that much better than some full price luxury brands. It isn't hard to see that this is not a great recipe for financial windfall for a brand as your profit per each car sold is on the low side and you aren't doing volume either. It's an area that most brands avoid and consequently there are only a few brands that find themselves trapped in this area. Over the past few years the three brands trapped in this area have all made efforts to escape and grow their sales, let's see how well they have done.

Volkswagen: Compact 62%, Midsize 22%, CUV 7% of Market Leader

Volkswagen is the world's best selling brand outside of America by a million or two (literally) and to jumpstart its US operations the brand recently went very mainstream with its core products, the Jetta and Passat. Closest to entry premium of the trio in their last generations there is no denying that both models were cheapened both figuratively and literally as Volkswagen moved down market, cut the price of admission at retail but also made obvious sacrifices to get there. The immediate payoff was fantastic for Volkswagen as the Jetta and Passat posted their best sales ever in a then still recovering marketplace. VW's progress has since stalled against fresh competition even with VW retreating back from most of the ruthless cost cutting. There is hope though as the USDM (and China) Passat is a better effort than the Jetta and its upcoming crossover looks promising to be an even better made for America product. Here's to hoping it arrives while crossovers are still a trend.

May 2012 Sales Recap

With supplies issues essentially behind them Toyota and Honda were able to post incredible sales increases compared to their May 2011 figures and even surpassing 2010 figures by a significant margin as well. Elsewhere the Chrysler Group continued its strong sales increase of the past year with surging sales at Chrysler itself, Jeep, and Ram brand. On the luxury side Lexus and Acura followed their parent brands with sales returning to previous levels while Mercedes achieved a nearly 20% sales improvement over last year. Overall May 2012 versus May 2011 sales were robust whichever way you look at it with only a couple of brands declining over a year ago. Of note was the Chevy Volt's strong month of 1,680 sales compared to the LEAF's showing of 510.

Of course as good as May was some were clearly expecting a little more perhaps indicating a possible slowing down in June or perhaps just a desire run an article about missing expectations while nearly doubling your sales.

2011 Sales Recap

Total car and light truck sales as a whole went up  about 10% in 2011 compared to 2010, an increase of over a million extra sales compared to last year bringing the grand total to just shy of 12.8 million. While the industry posted higher sales on average, 2011 will certainly be remembered for the lost market share of traditional powerhouses Toyota and Honda along with their respective luxury divisions. Natural disasters in Japan and Thailand reduced inventory for both Honda and Toyota and thus hurting sales, but ever stronger competition played a role as well. In the end Lexus was the biggest loser as it sales shrunk by 13.4% while Honda and Acura saw loses of around 6%. Both manufacturers should easily top 2011 sales in 2012 but new products for both manufacturers will be vital to improve upon 2010 sales level. At the other end of the spectrum Jeep posted incredible sales improvements over the entire year on its way to a 44% improvement. Kia and Hyundai continued to gain market share with improvements of 36 and 20 per cent while Volkswagen posted a 26.3 per cent improvement thanks to its "Americanized" Jetta and Passat models.

2011 also marked the first full year of mainstream electric transportation available for sale as the all electric Nissan LEAF found 9,674 customers while the range extending Chevrolet Volt enticed 7,671 buyers. While the Volt sold less for the year it has been outselling the LEAF the last few months winning December 1,529 versus 954 for the LEAF. We'll see how far electric vehicles will increase their market share in 2012 with new arrivals such as the Ford Focus.

Taking advantage of retreating Lexus sales throughout the year Mercedes and BMW are both withholding their official sales figures in a bit of election style "too close to call" race for the number one luxury spot. Don't expect things to be Iowa close but stay tuned for updated results tomorrow once Mercedes and BMW both officially announce their figures.

November Sales Recap: Chrysler Coming Back

Overall auto industry sales were up once again in November, this time to the tune of 14% compared to a year ago. At the top was Chrysler benefiting greatly with the Chrysler 200 outselling its predecessor the Sebring by a significant margin, 456% to be exact. All in all Chrysler managed a 92% increase in sales. Chrysler group's Jeep and Dodge brands did well as well with improvements of 50 and 43% respectively. Coming in first in the luxury category with a surprise 47.2% improvement was Mercedes, the newly updated C class sedan and coupe along with the new M class propelled the brand to the number one spot in luxury sales for the month. Sales of the new Passat helped Volkswagen post an over 40% sales increase as well. Like in most other months of this year Honda along with its luxury division Acura saw its sales fall once again. On the other hand Toyota and Lexus were able to turn the tide and post a sales increase for the month.

October 2011 Sales Recap

Featuring best monthly sales since February, October was another month showing that the auto industry in America is in recovery mode. Leading the pack was Volkswagen with a tremendous 39.6% increase in sales thanks to its new American built Passat. October Passat sales were the best of any month since 2005. Posting a surprise improvement was Mazda with a 37.4% improvement over last October. Doing well again was Chrysler with a 28% improvement while Dodge had a 23.2% improvement, just ahead of Hyundai at 22.8%. Leading the luxury category was Bentley with a 35% improvement, albeit that's only 42 extra sales. Aside from Bentley Audi and Mercedes-Benz had great months as well with improvement of 25.8 and 23.4% respectively. On the other side of the spectrum Honda and Toyota and their respective luxury divisions continued their sale slides while all GM brands save Chevrolet saw their sales drop compared to a year ago.

October marked only the second time in its existence that the Chevy Volt (1,108) outsold the Nissan LEAF (849).

September 2011 Sales Recap

Despite an uncertain economic outlook, September 2011 auto sales were about 10% better than a year ago and September turned out to be one of the best month of the year so far. As in previous months roughly two-thirds of the brands posted better sales than a year ago while Toyota and Honda continued to see their sales slide. Leading the pack was Maserati with an exceptional 46.3 percent improvement. In the mainstream category Chrysler and its truck division Ram posted improvements of 42 and 36% respectively. Powered by the debut of its much talked about American built Passat, Volkswagen was able to increase its sales by over 35% as well. Backing up its promise of great dealership availability Nissan posted a 28.2% sales increase, on the other hand its luxury division Infiniti only managed to better last year's results by 2.1%. Doing well in the luxury category Audi and BMW both posted 19.% sales improvements while Lexus continued to struggle with an 11.5% drop. Take a look at the chart below to see how all of your favorite automakers did in September.

As in previous months Nissan's LEAF outsold Chevy's Volt 1,031 to 723. While GM narrowed the gap in September the Nissan still enjoys a commendable 7,199 to 3,895 yearly sales lead which is easily confirmed on the street with the LEAF being a more common occurrence on the road than the Volt.

May 2011 Sales Recap

May 2011 delivered a mixed bag for the auto industry with some brands continuing their exceptional sales pace while others experienced heavy loses. Overall combined sales by all automakers fell nearly four percent compared to last year because of limited supply, higher gas prices and lower discounts. May was the first time this year the auto industry could not improve upon last year's sales. Japanese manufacturers carried the burden with the most significant supply limitation and thus experienced the largest drops in May with Toyota seeing a 32% drop and Lexus falling nearly 45%. Honda and Acura also saw sales drops of over 20% while Subaru and Infiniti posted double digit declines as well. Continued higher gas prices saw domestic manufacturers post modest gains for the month, powered by exceptional Jeep sales the Chrysler group did outsell Toyota to regain the number three sales rank in the country. Continuing their surging sales Hyundai and Kia combined to outsell Honda and Nissan thanks to improvements of 20.7 and 53.4% over the past year. Doing well also were luxury automakers with Bentley, Porsche, Jaguar, BMW and Audi experiencing significant sales improvements. Take a look at the chart below to see how all of the brands did in May.

A couple of days ago a Nissan Leaf commercial mocking the Chevy Volt debuted on You Tube, while the commercial probably had little effect on Leaf sales just yet (set to run on TV starting June 10) the Leaf did fine on its own posting its best sales yet of 1,142. While the Leaf is still selling relatively low numbers overall (lower than the Porsche Cayenne) it nearly doubled its April sales while Chevy sold only 481 Volts, slightly fewer than in April. All in all Chevy has sold 2,184 Volts in 2011 to Nissan's 2,167 Leafs.

April 2011 Sales Recap

Car sales continued to surge in April with the industry up 18% overall with many brands once again posting some of their best sales ever and other brands regaining their former glory. Pacing the industry was the surprising Mitsubishi brand that more than doubled its sales thanks to its two Outlander crossovers. On the other side of the spectrum Porsche also showed an incredible 82% sales growth thanks to excellent sales of its Cayenne SUV. The new Grand Cherokee also powered Jeep sales on route to a 65% improvement. Among the largest automakers Chevrolet and Ford both posted sales increases of around 25% percent with both automakers experiencing stronger car sales than truck sales. Of note was the Chevy Cruze breaking past the 25,000 sales figure for the first time. Kia and Hyundai continued their blistering sales pace with improvements of 56.7 and 40% respectively. Japanese mainstream automakers on the other hand saw more subdued sales increases with Nissan registering a 12.2 increase, Honda a 10% improvement while Toyota only managed a a 2 percent improvement. Dwindling inventories are likely to play an even greater role in the coming months for the Japanese automakers.

April was the first month that saw the Nissan Leaf outsell the Chevrolet Volt 573 to 493. With about twice as many Volts on the streets currently it will be interesting to see how this plays out the rest of the year. Also it will be interesting to see how the mix between cars, crossovers and pickups continues throughout the year. Currently pickups and SUVs are losing market share but are not facing declining sales when compared to last year just yet. Stay tuned to see if the trend continues.

March 2011 Sales Overview

While the overall sales pace slowed down slightly in March compared to February (13.1 million SAAR vs. 13.4 in February) numerous brands posted their strongest sales ever. Hyundai, Nissan and Kia all reported best monthly sales in history while Audi, Mercedes, and Porsche reported best March sales in recent history. Subaru recorded its second best month ever, powered by newly released models the Chrysler group saw best sales in three years while Volkswagen reported best sales in 7 years on a near two-fold increase in Jetta sales. March was also a special month for Ford (up 28.2%) as it outsold General Motors for the first time since February 2010. Among major manufacturers only Toyota posted a sales decline (-6.6) while its luxury division Lexus was nearly flat. On the luxury front Porsche, Land Rover, Audi, Infiniti, and BMW had double digit sales growth.

In the electric mobility front increased availability resulted in a sharp surge of Volt and Leaf sales. The Chevrolet Volt posted sales of 608 units while Nissan sold 298 Leafs.

For the time being it appears that neither high gas prices nor plant closures in Japan have affected US sales, stay tuned next month to see if the current trend continues.

February 2011 Sales Recap

With gas prices surging upwards the conventional thinking would have car sales falling, yet the complete opposite was true in February. As a whole the auto industry recorded a 27% improvement over February of 2010 and posted a 13.4 million sales pace for the year. The best performing brands all posted unheard of improvements of over 70% compared to last year. Fueled by an almost doubling of pickup sales the Ram sub-brand posted an 81% increase in sales. As a whole Dodge was up 22%. February was an exceptionally strong month for General Motors. Its luxury oriented Buick brand was up 73% while Cadillac up by 70%. Chevrolet was up 43% to lead the biggest sellers with Toyota right behind with a 41.8% improvement. Toyota's luxury division Lexus did not fair as well only managing a 0.2% improvement. Of the remaining mainstream brands only Lincoln and Chrysler posted declines for the month. It will be interesting to see how the sales trend progresses over the next few months and if the rising fuel prices take a toll on sales.

As before Kill With Fire will continue to monitor sales of electric vehicles, Chevrolet sold 281 Volts and Nissan delivered 67 Leafs to customers.

January 2011 Sales At a Glance

January was another good month for the auto industry as a whole with all but four brands turning in increased sales. The month also brought a few pleasant surprises with Mitsubishi, Smart, and Suzuki all improving on last year's sales. Cadillac led all brands with a 49.1% improvement over last January with Jaguar right behind at 48%. The Jeep brand (up 47%) is doing exceptionally well with its new Grand Cherokee and is quickly catching up to Dodge in overall sales. Also doing well for the month was the previously mentioned Mitsubishi that posted its best monthly sales since 2009. Not to be outdone Subaru and Audi posted record January sales. On the flip side the biggest surprise of the month was the large drop suffered by Lexus (17.1%) which forced Lexus to give up its luxury crown to Mercedes. Of note was the continued slow rollout of the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Volt selling 321 and 87 units respectively. While Obama is promising a million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015, at this point in time you are more likely to see an Italian exotic on the road. Expect the sales of the Volt and Leaf to increase as they go on sale nationwide later in the year.

2010 Sales In Review

December 2010 proved to be a very good month for the auto industry with most brands posting significant increases in sales over last December. In fact, Mini and Mercedes-Benz posted best December sales in their company history. 2010 as a year on the whole also proved to be much better for the auto industry compared to the past few years. All brands save Toyota and Suzuki were able to improve their sales compared to 2009. Even the recently discontinued Mercury brand was able to improve by a percentage point to close out its existence. General Motor's premium divisions led all brands with Buick improving by 51.9% and Cadillac with 34.7% respectively. Hyundai and Ford bested all of the other mainstream competition with 24 and 21% improvements. The 21% sales improvement allowed Ford to outsell Chevrolet and Toyota for the year. Hyundai, Kia and Audi all had banner years selling more than every before. Take a look at the chart below to see how everyone did in 2010 compared to 2009.

December also marked the start of sales of the all electric Nissan Leaf and the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt. Electric mobility is of to a slow start with the Volt winning the first battle with 326 sales compared to only 19 Leafs for Nissan.

September 2010 Sales

September of 2009 was a poor month for automakers as the industry tried to recover from cash for clunkers, thus it was no surprise that September 2010 sales would be significantly higher than a year ago. In fact all but five brands improved their sales upon a year ago and almost all of those brands saw double digit growth. Chrysler paced everyone with a 92% improvement while other domestic brands showed strong sales improvements as well. Luxury brands were led by Infiniti's 25% sales improvement. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the month was the fact that Lexus' 5.5% drop in sales joining the likes of Volvo, Suzuki and Smart.

A Year After Cash For Clunkers: August 2010 Sales

The automakers happily used the government's Cash for Clunkers program last August to stat pad their sales figures. It’s no surprise then that without government incentives only a baker's dozen brands were able to improve upon last year's sales, a commendable feat for those brands. Once again Cadillac and Buick delivered incredible sales increases for GM of 83.1 and 66 percent. On the strength of its newly launched Cayenne and Panamera models Porsche sales grew by 33%. The vast majority of the brands posting sales increases do business in the luxury sector, and thus did not benefit much from the C4C program last year. The Chrysler group was one of the best performing mainstream brands posting a modest improvement overall. On the other hand Nissan, Honda, and Toyota were unable to come close to clunker driven sales of a year ago, dropping 31, 33 and 36% respectively.



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July 2010 Sales

July sales were generally positive for the automakers as two-thirds of the brands showed improvement. General Motor's Cadillac and Buick led everyone and were the only brands to more than double their sales from last July. Chevrolet, Ford, and Nissan reported sales increases while Honda and Toyota reported small sales drops. On the luxury front Acura and Infiniti had strong rebound months with sales improvement of 50 and 38 percent respectively. Cash for Clunkers played a small part last July but August will be a real challenge for the automakers to improve upon last year's clunker driven sales.



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June 2010 Sales

Overall the month of June proved to be kind for the auto industry with all but a handful of brands improving upon last year's sales. Porsche led everyone by more than doubling their sales on the strength of the new Panamera and Cayenne. Dodge and Buick brands also posted impressive improvements of over 50%. Cadillac led the luxury brands with a 39% increase. Many brands had sales improvements of over 10%, but Nissan, Toyota, Honda and Lexus bucked the trend and all had lesser improvements.

2009 Sales in Review

The fact that 2009 was a terrible year for the auto industry is not secret, now with the year officially over we can tally up the total sales figures and see how bad it really was. In the end all but three automakers suffered sales decreases. Subaru, Kia and Hyundai all improved their sales significantly while Volkswagen, Audi and Ford were able to keep their sales declines below 15%. Even generally popular and healthy brands had lost as much as one third of their 2008 sales. The remaining brands for the most part have already been discontinued, or are hanging on in the US market by a thread.However, there is hope for the entire industry with most brands showing increases in December sales and total 2010 sales are expected to surpass those of 2009 easily. Unfortunately this might not happen quickly enough for some brands.



Lots of red for the automotive industry in 2009, click to enlarge.

October 2009 Sales At a Glance

October was a gentler month for the auto industry as roughly half of the brands were able to post sales figures that improved upon last October. Hyundai, Kia and Subaru lead all brands with sales improvement of over 40%. Trailing everyone were Smart, Saab and Hummer with over 70% declines. Mercedes, Cadillac and Lexus lead the luxury segment with around 20% improvement. Of note is the appearance of the Ram brand featuring Chrysler's pickups and the Sprinter work van.



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Who Struggled the Most After Cash for Clunkers?

The government's CARS program (cash for clunkers) was extremely helpful for car companies, driving numerous monthly sales records. Not surprisingly, the majority of car companies saw significantly lower September sales compared to clunker powered August sales. Suzuki did the worst of all brands, as it sold 68% fewer cars in September than it did in August. Not counting Saturn and Pontiac, Honda, Chrysler, and Nissan also sold less than half the number of cars in September than they did in August. On the other side of the spectrum, Cadillac, Buick, Porsche and Lincoln actually managed to sell more cars without the clunker program. In the luxury category, Acura did the worst, losing almost a quarter of its August sales, BMW and Lexus both sold 22% fewer cars. Mercedes Benz sold only one percent fewer cars in September, Audi sold only 11% fewer cars.

With the clunker program over, manufacturers will have to find new ways to increase their sales in the future.



September sales in comparison with August sales (click on image to enlarge)

August 2009 Sales

As expected the CARS program elevated car sales in the United States. Automaker's August sales reports make this clear with most brands having best monthly sales of the year, some brands produced best sales numbers in years while Hyundai and Honda had their best month ever. Luxury automakers, were not as lucky as the CARS program did little to raise their figures. The only exception was Audi which was able to lift its sales by 26%.

Overall Toyota lead all brands with 202,196 cars sold followed by Chevrolet, Ford and Honda.

Kia, Subaru and Hyundai lead all with sales increases of 60.4, 52 and 47 percent respectively. Saturn was the biggest loser of the month with a 58.4% drop.

August 2009 Sales by Automaker



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