Santa left a lump of coal in the automakers' stockings this year. Even the usual Christmas sales failed to put presents under the tree. As the year drew to a close, new car and truck sales were down across the board, with carmakers jostling for the honor of doing less badly than the other guy. New Year's was a decidedly dour affair, with manufacturers clocking the housing downturn and the mortgage crisis and predicting either flat or "slightly lowered" sales in the year ahead. Translation: batten down the hatches; it's about to get rough. Ain't that the truth.
Compared to December '06, light vehicles sales sank 2.9 percent for the month, 2.5 percent for the year. The light truck market went dim, with sales four percent below last December's total. Annual truck sales dropped by 1.9 percent. Total car sales fell 1.7 percent compared for December of last year, ending the year three percent below 2006. Here's how the models we've been tracking fared at the end of the year.
Passenger Cars
Chevy's Impala plummeted 32 percent compared to last December. Robust spring sales forestalled total disaster; sales were up 7.3 percent for the year. The Chrysler 300 ended the month 38.8 percent below '06; total sales were down 16 percent from last year. Ford's Fusion was a life preserver; sales were up seven percent in December, 4.9 percent for year. Toyota's Camry showed an uncharacteristic 1.8 percent December drop, but finished the year 5.5 percent ahead of 2006. While Camry hybrid sales nose-dived 73.2 percent in December, the Prius was up 53 percent for the same period.
Pickup Trucks
After falling for four months, Silverado's sales clocked a 2.2 percent increase in December. GM's former Next Big Thing was down 2.8 percent for year. Dodge Ram sales also picked up– and finished December down 2.3 percent, 1.6 percent below 2006's totals. Ford's F-Series managed to retain it's title as "best selling truck," but only barely. With sales down 22 percent in December, 13.2 percent for year, FoMoCo'd better hope they can hang on until the redesigned model is ready in 2009. Toyota's Tundra didn't make their goal of 200k sales in '07, but the redesigned model easily eclipsed its predecessor. Sales were up 54.1 percent in December, 57.9 percent for the year.
Truck-Based SUVs
The sun continues to set on traditional body-on-frame SUV. The Chevrolet Tahoe dropped 25.6 percent from last December, ending the year down 9.4 percent. Dodge's Durango sank a staggering 42.6 percent below last last December, some 35.6 percent off the previous year's pace. The Ford Explorer is still lost. December sales were down 18.7 percent, annual sales sank 23.1 percent. Toyota's 4Runner also lacked love, losing 16.6 percent from last December, dropping 14.9 percent overall from the previous year.
CUVs
CUVs may be the hot ticket, but older models are suffering. Ye Olde Chevrolet Equinox lost 16.1 percent of its sales from last December, finishing the year down 21.4 percent. The soon-to-be-a-has-been Chrysler Pacifica fell an unbelievable 62.1 percent for the month, ending-up 31.1 percent below last year overall. The Ford Escape stumbled a bit, losing 8.9 percent from last December. But it finished the year with a 5.2 percent increase over 2006. Toyota's RAV-4 remains healthy, finishing the year up 0.2 percent for month and a whopping 13.6 percent for year.
New for 2007
Say what you will about cannibalization, GMC sold 7,393 Acadia mega-CUVs in December; an increase of 998 units over November. In total, GMC sold almost 73k Acadias in 2007. Ford's Edge did even better, finishing December with 13,722 sales, adding 1128 sales to November's total. Ford sold over 130k units in 2007. Jeep picked up an additional 612 Compass sales over November, putting 3,295 on the soft road in December; they sold just under 40k of the semi-Jeeps in 2007.
Total Sales
Scrooge reigned supreme in December with one minor exception. GM finished December down 4.4 percent from last December and down six percent year to date. Ford was in even worse shape, dropping nine percent for December and 11.8 percent below last year's total. Chrysler was the only automaker showing an increase over December '06: one half of one percent. For the year, Chrysler was down 3.1 percent. Toyota didn't fare as well, dropping 1.7 percent over last December, but finishing the year 3.1 percent ahead of last year.
Looking ahead
Let's just say it ain't gonna be pretty, and I'll be here to help keep your finger on the pulse.
[I'm making a few changes to illuminate overall trends. First, I'm dropping 2005's numbers to keep the charts to the current calendar year plus two. I'm adding Honda's numbers in the categories where they're a player. I'm replacing a few extinct models (e.g. Pacifica) and those that don't accurately represent that manufacturer's best efforts in their category (e.g. replacing Equinox with Acadia). I'm also thinking about adding a chart for the best-selling hybrid from each manufacturer (GM doesn't break out hybrids in their sales numbers, so they won't be included). If you have any other suggestions, let me know in a comment below.]
Since this is about numbers the new Chrysler minivans had a pretty good December. The reason for Chryslers Dec numbers
With the shift towards more fuel efficient vehicles, add a comparison of the sales on the Corolla, Cobalt, Focus and Civic
I’d like to add a small request: In the luxury or entry-level luxury car segment, how did sales of the higher consumption vehicles change vs. lower.
I.e. How did the BMW 528 fair? The Infiniti M35 vs M45? The Lexus IS250 vs IS350 (though that’s tough, as the AWD version is only offered on the IS250 and it is winter-time)…
The Acura TSX vs TL, the Merc. E350 vs E500, etc.
I’m looking at models that haven’t had any significant changes, and curious if sales of their less hungry counterparts increased in direct relation to a decrease in the hoonorific varieties (I haven’t seen the word hoon on this site in like 2 months now).
I’m curious if the middle-upper-class and up are choosing vehicles with less fuel consumption more often, even though they can, arguably, easily afford the fluctuations of gas prices at this time.
Joe
I’m with Joe. Are people choosing smaller engines? Are the going further and choosing smaller cars?
Nissan:
Titan down 9.2% on the year 65k units moved
Frontier down 17% on the year 64K units moved
The original CUV the Murano down 6.5% with 76K units
Versa moved 79k for the year, Altima was up 22% to 284K units. Sentra, Maxima and 350z were all down for the year (10%, 24%, and 23% respectively)
As a whole Nissan moved 941,200 units up 4.5% from last year. Infiniti was up the same 4.5% to 127,038 vehicles.
Interesting. The author left out Honda. The car maker that posted both Dec and whole year gain. Do they sell too few Accords, Civics and CRVs to be mentioned?
Also, it doesn’t make much sense to consider the percentage change without the actual units sold figure.
wsn :
Interesting. The author left out Honda. The car maker that posted both Dec and whole year gain. Do they sell too few Accords, Civics and CRVs to be mentioned?
As I stated when I started this series using the charts, I didn’t include Honda because they don’t have vehicles in two of the four categories I’m tracking – full size pickups and large SUVs. AND, as I stated at the end of the article, I’m going to add Honda to the 2008 charts in the categories where they do offer vehicles.
Also, it doesn’t make much sense to consider the percentage change without the actual units sold figure.
The units sold are reflected in the graphs.
I too am confused as to what you are counting and not counting in this article. But the list of car makers that had positive growth for all light vehicles in US, both for in December year-over-year, and for the full year:
BMW
Chrysler (exception: NOT for full year)
Ferrari
Honda (just barely)
Hyundai (or Hyundai-Kia, but not Kia alone)
Mazda (if you want to count it separately)
Lambo
Lotus
Maserati
Porsche
Suzuki
Fat times for super-car drivers!
I’m curious about Hyundia’s growth mostly because they are. I’ve seen two sets of numbers for year-end sales on Hyundai and they don’t match up.
I’d be very interested to see how Hyundai is faring as compared to the other major manufacturers, and Hyundai does offer a similar lineup as Honda (save for the sorta-pickup Ridgeline.) Seeing as Hyundai has traditionally offered similar vehicles for less money than the competition, I think it would be suitable to highlight the Korean impact on the market (or the market’s impact on Hyundai, whatever.)
So, is the new Americanized Scion xB a success? I am curious if Toyota’s decision to remove its Anime-cool personality resulted better sales or worse sales.
MY deepest condolences to the Detroit big 3! You deserve it!
I was looking at a break down for the year on Autoblog and noticed that the number one brand for 2007 was Toyota. They ended up about 25k buggies ahead of Chevy.
Surprised that hasn’t made more news.
Matthew Danda-Jury’s still out on the new xB. Sales were up 13.7% in December and 10.4% in November, but it’s a new model and they should be up. It definitely didn’t fall flat on it’s face, though, even though nobody here likes it.
However, the xD is a confirmed dud, selling worse than even the mediocre sales of the old xA which it replaced.
Oops! I guess the Toyota figures I saw included Scion. No wonder it’s not news…yet.
Ongoing slump in autos
Although this has become a familiar story, there is one interesting new development. For some time the trend has been that while total vehicle sales fell, sales of imported vehicles rose. Something curious happened last month, however, in that vehicles manufactured in North America actually gained market share relative to the imports.
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2008/01/ongoing_slump_i.html
Another take on the data …
Mr. Williams –
As always, great article. Keep up the excellent work.