Toyota‘s Yaris and Corolla models did not receive much in the way of a sales boost from the government’s cash for clunkers program, recording 36 percent and 14 percent declines respectively. Nor did Honda‘s Fit, which slid 28 percent to 8,876. Prius, however, did. America’s hybrid grew its sales by 30 percent compared to last July. It also creamed Honda’s competing Insight, 19,173 to 2,295. Prius alone now sells as well as Buick, Cadillac and Saturn combined. Hail to the king, baby.
But Toyota needs to nurse that feel-good, because it doesn’t make up for the fact that the rest of its car results are still in shambles. Scion, in particular, could have won big from Cash for Clunkers, but Scions sell on individuality, not value. As a result, xB is down 44 percent to 2,838 units, the tC is down 60 percent to 1,939 and the xD is down three percent to 1,976. Camry is off about 20 percent, Venza is launching slowly (like almost all large CUVs) at 5,780 units and Avalon is down to just under 2,000 units.
RAV-4 has been leading Toyota’s trucks-n-utes, and was up 32.5 percent to 15,912 units. But in July the biggest story was probably the Highlander, which lept 39 percent to 9,40. Sienna survived with a 19 point drop, but everything else was off by between 26 percent (Land Cruiser) and 75 percent (FJ Cruiser).
Civic was the only Honda car to see a clunker-led rally, up 3.1 percent to 30,037. Accord is down 28 percent to 29,974. On the “truck” front, Honda’s CR-V continues to be the only reliable performer, up ten percent to 19,151. From there things go from bad (Pilot: 6,340, -15.3 percent) to worse (Odyssey: 6,785, -48 percent).
Lexus cars are in freefall, with even the usually-solid ES and IS dropping by 21 and 15 percent respectively. LS and GS barely register at 874 and 551 units each. RX is up ten percent to 7,811 units, but GX (587) and LX (215) are almost completely off the radar.
Acura is hardly any better off. TL dropped by a mere 16.5 percent, but TSX fell over 35 percent to just 2,232 units. RL inspired 131 sales. MDX fell “only” 29 percent to 2,471, but RDX is dead on its feet with only 519 sales.
Part of the problem with CFC is that owners may want to find similar utility for their next vehicle as they have today, but can’t do so because the MPG jump isn’t there.
A good example is minivans, whose fuel economy hasn’t changed much in 15 years.
Hmmm, 53% of the vehicles reportedly bought using C4C trades were foreign nameplates, yet Toyota and Honda are still sucking wind.
So far Ford and Subaru are the only makers to report actual sales increases compared to last July.
It will be interesting to see what VW’s numbers are.
+1 to gslippy’s comment. Minivans are vastly more powerful and feature laden than they were 15 years ago, but fuel economy has been flat to down in that segment. I just compared a mid-level 1994 Caravan to a mid-level 2009 Caravan on fueleconomy.gov. Both are rated at 18 mpg combined. Fifteen years without any fuel economy improvement.
If/when gas goes up to the $5 dollar range, I predict the Prius will become the best-selling car in the US. It’s obvious that it’s stealing substantial sales from both the Corolla and Camry.
@John Horner, minivans are heavier and more powerful than they were 15 years ago, therefore getting the same mileage is an improvement!
@ Paul Niedermeyer
If/when gas goes up to the $5 dollar range, I predict the Prius will become the best-selling car in the US.
If/when gasoline hits $4/gal, I predict Toyota will switch every vehicle to hybrid overnight (in manufacturing terms). They’re ready/waiting to do it.
I further predict, no-one will be able to afford to go with them, nor do they have the tech ready.
+1 to gslippy’s comment. Minivans are vastly more powerful and feature laden than they were 15 years ago, but fuel economy has been flat to down in that segment. I just compared a mid-level 1994 Caravan to a mid-level 2009 Caravan on fueleconomy.gov. Both are rated at 18 mpg combined. Fifteen years without any fuel economy improvement.
This is what bothers me about the incessant “buy minivans, not SUVs” mantra often heard around here. Minivan fuel economy really isn’t as hot as many proclaim it to be, and most minivans lack the sort of towing capacity and 4wd capabilities that mid-size SUVs have.
This isn’t to say that people should be buying midsize SUVs; it’s that minivan fuel economy should be much better than it actually is.
RL inspired 131 sales.
What a disaster. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our poster child for excess global capacity.
venator : The point is that engineering efforts have been focused on ever bigger vehicles with ever more horsepower. Once CAFE froze, the engineering efforts moved away from net fuel efficiency and on to maintaining fuel economy while doing MORE MORE MORE.
Had the fuel economy of the new vehicle fleet continued to improve we might not have had the massive gas price spikes of last year.
To another issue: Honda has screwed up a number of product designs lately. The Insight is a failure because it is designed to be almost as good as a Prius for a little less money. Bzzzt, F! When was the Accord ever designed to be almost as good as a Camry for a little less money? The Acura RDX is a complete bust. The Acura RL has always been a failure. The TSX-V6 was just introduced to further blur the line with its platform mate the TL. The Accord got bigger and fatter again. Honda’s only solid winning product right now is the Fit, and that wasn’t even supposed to be for the USA.
Honda projected annual sales of 20,000 units for the RL back when it launched. That makes me laugh every time I think about it. The RL has been beaten in the market like a rented mule, and for good reason. For some reason consumers didn’t buy the idea of a $50K car with invisible styling, an invisible badge, cramped interior, small trunk, lousy ride and handling, uncomfortable seats, a 12 cent steering wheel, and shit ergonomics. I just can’t imagine why.
i would say the civic is still pretty damn good
but yes acura is a clusterNSFW of design language and product planning, i miss the days of the legend and the NSX and the integra 4 and 2 door. the legend still looks pretty good in my book.
@ toyota, new corolla = redesign fail. it is a refresh you can’t fool me you just put new cladding on it
Davekaybsc,
You forgot the take-it-or-leave-it AWD system, Transformer c*nt grille and the lack of a V8 option.
Ha! Ravage as a Prius in disguise. The irony.
As I’ve said, things keep going the way they are going, Prius is going to be to Hybrids what Kleenex is to facial tissues. Which is good because as others have pointed out Scion is soon to be gone. Or should be.
And I will pile on to Acura. Based alone on being bloody ugly, across the board, they deserve to suffer.
I agree the Civic is still very good. Early this morning while driving my daily driver ’09 Civic Coupe, I passed four other ’09 Civic Coupes within two miles. It’s not the car I drive on the weekends, but for a daily driver it’s great and a Detroit killer. My manual (that’s still fun to drive) is getting on average 35 mpg.
I don’t think the Accord is bloated per se, not when you consider that it’s within an inch or so of most of the rest of the class.
If you want the more svelte, feature-reduced Accord of yesteryear, Honda will happily sell you a Civic. Honda has simply moved the Accord up to a size class it never had an entrant in during previous years. I don’t see this is a problem, unless we’re hung up on the Accord nameplate.
If it bothers you that it’s gotten large, pry the nameplate off a Caprice and stick it on the bacl
Looks from these numbers that Acura is in trouble. I understand the 2010 MDX introduction has been delayed for several months because U.S. parts suppliers have been affected by the bankruptcy of GM. Seems like they share the same suppliers. So if Acura isn’t getting a bounce from the C4C program…where will it be in October?