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.

Audi Looks To Fix Styling Faults

It’s hard for anyone to admit to their own faults. It is especially hard if you are one of the biggest luxury automobile manufacturers on the planet constantly setting styling trends and breaking sales records monthly. Nevertheless, much like a championship team looking to get even better in the off season Audi has acknowledged some of the criticism regarding its styling.While Audi is certainly not the only brand that uses styling to create a strong brand identity it agrees that some might view its models as same sausage-different length. In the future Audi plans to create more separation between one A model and the next. The brand also promises an even more significant differentiation between its sedans, SUVs and sports cars.

Why People Say and Do Two Completely Different Things and How This Impacts CAFE

In a recent Consumer Reports survey, a whopping 93% of responders said that they would like to see higher fuel economy standards. In fact, 80% support CAFE's plan for a 55 mile per gallon average across all vehicles by 2025. In order to achieve CAFE's goals of 55mpg, 56% of those surveyed say they will  consider a hybrid or an electric vehicle for their next purchase. Even better, 80% said that they would pay more for a fuel efficient vehicle that would save them money in the long run. Such results paint a very rosy picture for the automotive industry as it appears that the public is certainly willing to adopt and pay for new technology to raise their MPG. Unfortunately, in reality the picture is completely different. According to the latest data available only a scant percentage of car buyers actually do buy hybrids, in fact hybrid market share of all cars sold in October was less than 2%. This means that only 4% of those considering a hybrid actually buy a one and everyone else was just pretending. Even accounting for the fact that not every model is available as a hybrid it is hard to explain the enormous discrepancy. Besides, wouldn't someone wanting to buy a hybrid make the sacrifice and buy a Camry hybrid versus an Accord? The fact of the matter is that talk is cheap and when real money comes into play people are reluctant to pony up the dough  to get a hybrid. While buying a hybrid or an electric versus a conventional internal combustion requires actual monetary and vehicular commitments, answering a phone poll does not.  In regards to CAFE, politicians and everyone else must remain skeptical regarding surveys of people's hopes about fuel economy and should instead take a good look at reality.

56% of people say they are considering hybrids for their next purchase

Yet Ford sold over 2.5 times more F series in October than all hybrids combined.

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).

2011's Most Improved Awards

As seen in previous posts Kill It With Fire likes to reward improvement, so with that in mind lets reward some of 2011's most improved vehicles with some virtual awards. Keep in mid that this is not a list of 2011's best cars but rather a list of a few cars that have made great strides compared to their previous generation.

Most Improved Sales: Volkswagen Jetta

Even though the Jetta has been Volkswagen's best selling model for many years running its overall sales were just a fraction compared to its better known mainstream competition. In fact the Jetta often struggled to find true competition as it was too upscale to compete with most compacts but wasn't much of a premium product either (see Buick Verano). For the sixth generation Volkswagen created downmarket variants of the Jetta and priced them closer inline with the competition. The result has been a sales improvement of 70% on the year. While many have chided VW for taking a "step back" with the Jetta, the public has certainly rewarded VW. The cheaper base price has helped sales, the Jetta's new crisper styling has likely helped as well.

New Jetta sales are up 70%

Most Improved Design: Hyundai Accent (5 door)

Hyundai has been making some noise over the past few years with greatly improved products with better engines, interiors and styling. The Sonata and the Elantra are perhaps the most well known examples of Hyundai's new styling direction. However while these two models have certainly elevated Huyndai's design game, the new five door Accent is actually Hyundai's best design to to date. The hatchback Accent features excellent styling, rarely seen in the compact category, without the over-styled elements seen in the Sonata and Elantra. The new Accent simply blows the old one out of the water style-wise, even the not as good looking sedan is miles ahead of the previous generation.

The Accent went from this shapeless figure

To this stylish design

Most Improved Technology Update: Chrysler 300 8 speed Automatic

The second generation Chrysler 300 debuted to generally good automotive praise as it represented a good update on its groundbreaking design, new more powerful V6 and a significantly more luxurious interior. Perhaps the biggest complaint was the 5 speed automatic gearbox that was holding back the 300 when compared to competition with their 6 speed gearboxes. Enter the new 8 speed automatic that adds 4 additional mpg on the highway (31) and improves acceleration as well that makes the 300 a significantly more competitive product.

New 8 speed auto with new shifter

DOHC vs. Pushrod vs. Diesel: Which Engine Technology Has Improved the Most

In a world with multiple competing engine technologies there are likewise multiple different metrics to statistically judge which engine technology is the best. Horsepower per liter, torque per liter, horsepower per pound of engine weight, brake specific fuel consumption, and other metrics are often brought up in discussions about various engine technologies. For now we will disregard most of those metrics and instead look to see which engine technologies have improved the most over the past decade by comparing the hp/liter and torque/liter of three different generations of DOHC, pushrod and diesel engines. Looking over the data* it is easy to see that turbo diesels have made the most significant leap in horsepower and torque output since the 2000 model year. While pushrod and DOHC engines improved engine output by approximately 10% with every new generation, diesel engines on average improved their horsepower output by 16% with very new generation. The discrepancy in torque improvement turned out to be even more visible as the gasoline engine only improved their torque output by 4-5% while diesels averaged 17%. While the numbers certainly stand out, the reasoning behind them makes sense as non high RPM naturally aspirated gasoline engines are experiencing diminishing returns on improvement as it becomes harder and harder for manufacturers to extract additional horsepower from the same displacement. On the other hand it wasn't long ago that passenger diesels delivered about half the horsepower per liter compared to gasoline competition. With new diesel technology this is no longer the case with several diesel engines delivering the same horsepower per liter (and significantly more torque) as their gasoline competition. A good example is the Audi A6 that features a 310 horsepower gasoline supercharged 3 liter V6 and a 313 horsepower 3 liter twin-turbo diesel V6.

*DOHC category (Audi V8, BMW I6, Porsche H6), pushrod category (Chevy 5.3 smallblock, Corvette smallblock, Chrysler pushrod engines) Diesel category (I4, V6 and V8 TDI engines)

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.