Ford was America’s top-selling brand in April. The best-selling car was Toyota’s Camry. America’s favourite utility vehicle was once again the Honda CR-V. GM was down 8%. The Prius Plug-In out sold the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf. Fiat sold more 500s than they had up to this point.
These facts were either readily apparent from the get-go or made obvious by earlier coverage. Each month we break down all the data at GoodCarBadCar.net. The April 2012 recap is well underway. Here are some of the most interesting April 2012 auto sales facts which have been gleaned while sorting through the U.S. numbers.
The Ford F-Series is more than just the best-selling truck in America, it’s the best-selling vehicle line overall. 4% of the new vehicles sold last month were F-Series trucks, up from 3.9% in April 2011. Through the first third of 2012, the F-Series’ market share stood at 4.1%, a hair’s breadth better than it was during the same period last year.
Not all pickup trucks have fared so well. Some have never been able to fare well. The Suzuki Equator was down 10% to 151. Bentley and Maserati, two luxury brands lacking an SUV, both found more buyers for their highly exclusive and obviously expensive cars. Bentley sold 203 cars in April; Maserati 232.
Audi’s A7, clearly advantaged by its lower price, beat the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class by 133 sales in April. Year-to-date, the A7’s lead over the CLS expanded to 401 sales. In what amounts to more of a head-to-head battle, the BMW 3-Series had no trouble overcoming the rival Benz last month. That the 3-Series can make a monthly routine of being America’s best-selling premium brand car is one thing, that it did so in April with a 2579-unit margin ofvictory over the Mercedes C-Class is another feat altogether.
As previously mentioned, the Toyota Camry, with 36,820 sales in April, was America’s best–selling car. Honda’s Accord trailed by only 1435 sales. In fact, the Accord of yesteryear, which you might recall included the unpopular Crosstour, would have beaten the Camry by 334 sales in April. Hyundai and Kia combined to sell 31,542 Sonatas and Optimas. Dodge and Chrysler sold 24,490 Avengers and 200s. These numbers serve to highlight the Camry’s dominance.
Buick sales slid 16% last month. Excluding the now defunct Lucerne, Buick sales were down by just 18 units and, on a daily sales rate basis, were actually up 12.4%. Lucerne-free these numbers may be, but they do include the Verano, a car which didn’t sell as well this April as the Lucerne did last April. Apart from the Verano, every other Buick was in decline, and significantly so.
The situation was similar at Infiniti. Thanks to the new JX, Infiniti sales jumped 5.4%. Sales of every other Infiniti nameplate fell off last April’s pace.Rather than increase Infiniti’s volume by 2079 extra sales, the JX was able to do little more than cover up the 1711 lost G, M, EX, FX, and QX sales. During a month in which Nissan Pathfinder sales jumped 26.5%, the JX outsold the Nissan by 22 units.
The Jeep Wrangler ranked sixth among SUVs inApril. Faithful Wrangler fans would say it was the most popular sport-ute, given that the five best sellers were all car-like tall wagons. This was the Wrangler’s best finish since September when only four utility vehicles outsold the Jeep.
Mazda’s new CX-5, on sale since late February, is the Wrangler’s utility vehicle antithesis. Though not at all as popular as the Jeep, the CX-5 sold 3.7 times for every single Mazda 5 sale in April. There are actually more Mazda 5’s currently stocked in the U.S. than there are CX-5s.
Chevrolet sold 174 Caprices during Ford’s second month of selling the Police Interceptor Utility and Police Interceptor Sedan. The policing versions of the Explorer and Taurus sold 667 and 547 times, respectively.
With its cars alone, Mercedes-Benz would have ranked as the third-best-selling premium brand in America in April. 14,231 Mercedes-Benz passenger cars were sold last month. Acura sold 12,175 vehicles in total; Audi sold 11,521. Add Mercedes-Benz’s R-Class, M-Class, G-Class, GL-Class, and GLK, and the three-pointed star’s total rises to 22,336. That’s 1274 more sales than BMW managed and 4785 more than Lexus sold.
Although the mainstream automotive press is keen to point out the Nissan Versa’s failings and the Mazda 2’s dreamy dynamics, consumers don’t appear to care. Nissan sold eight times more Versas in April, its low price helping push sales up 30%. In fact, though Mazda 2 sales are up 59.3% this year, its four-month total is 23 units less than Nissan’s April Versa total.
In between these two, you’ll see that sales of the Chevrolet Sonic are booming (that was too easy). The Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio were up 40.3% and 55.6% in April while Ford’s so-called fun-to-drive Fiesta fell 43.9%. The revised Toyota Yaris more than doubled to 4274 sales, 1072 more subcompact sales than Honda found with the odd-looking but enthusiast-approved Fit, which was down 60.5%. Even Toyota’s Prius C sold more frequently than the Fit.
Meanwhile, Mini, which now sells about 391 different Cooper breeds, barely managed to report a sales increase in the first one-third of 2012. Countryman sales are up 13.1%, but the Cooper Hardtop, Convertible, and Clubman have combined to lose 1069 sales, year-over-year. The Coupe and Roadster have stepped in with 1026 and 512 sales to help make up the difference. Mini sold 3129 Cooper Hardtops and Convertibles during Fiat’s best-yet 500 and 500C sales month in which 3849 Cinquecentos were sold.
And nothing else happened in April, other than the fact that the Scion iQ’s existence once again seemed to help the smart fortwo sell more frequently. And the cancelled Galant was Mitsubishi’s best-selling model. And Volkswagen’s Golf took over from the GTI as Volkswagen’s hatchback year-to-date sales leader, by five whole sales. And, in the real world, IKEA introduced furniture with integrated televisions and the Secret Service embarrassed itself.
Independent analyst Timothy Cain is the founder and editor of GoodCarBadCar.net
Many Wranglers are used as urban SUVs these days. It’s very apparent from forums, where focus is shifting from suspension and drivertrain mods to appearance and convenience mods. I do not have the data to quantify the shift, but I am certain that it is happening.
Yes, sadly. I don’t think we really even need data… Just walk outside and see how many JK’s have scratches on them. My old TJ had all kinds of battle scars from thrashing off-road but most JK’s I see are squeaky clean.
My Rubi is a bit scratched, but I feel bad about it. In many cases I could’ve easily avoided the damage by steering correctly. Another good one was from taking the hardtop off alone. Thinking about a project to fix them all up.
“Chevrolet sold 174 Caprices during Ford’s second month of selling the Police Interceptor Utility and Police Interceptor Sedan. The policing versions of the Explorer and Taurus sold 667 and 547 times, respectively.”
Is it possible that the lack of a civilian car is eroding confidence in GM’s commitment to the Caprice and holding back police sales?
It’s probably the center console shifter more than anything else. Police departments are used to mounting their own electronics to the center console and shifting on the column.
They have a non-trivial amount of money tied up in the equipment that’s supposed to go there, so a replacement car needs to have a mount plate where the center console normally is. The police models from Ford and Dodge all have that configuration, and for that matter the police-spec Impala did too, but the new Caprice doesn’t.
And this is juat another example of how the “new” GM still doesn’t get it (and I’m a long-time GM owner/driver myself).
Some police depts are required to buy US made, and the AUS Caprice won’t make the cut.
There don’t seem to be many police departments that care if their cars are U.S. made. Essentially all police cars I see are Crown Vics, Chargers, and Impalas. All of them are Canadian.
In the U.S. the word “domestic” as it relates to vehicle manufacturing place of origin is defined in Federal law as a vehicle made in the United States or Canada.
Most requests for proposal from public fleet buyers specifically use the word “domestic” because it gives the appearance of buying a product manufactured in the United States while not excluding viable solutions manufactured in Canada.
Well, what do you expect people to enjoy spending $70 every time they have to fill their tanks?
I’m surprised just how feeble Tacoma sales are. I suppose I only know of one person that bought one in the past 12 months, down from as many as five purchases a year circa 2008. Considering just how good it is at being a small pickup, I can see why nobody is bothering to develop a competitor.
When even the Tacoma is slipping in sales, it’s not surprising that the “compact” pickup segment is moribund in the USA. (Not that the Tacoma is even that small!)
I’m not. It’s in its 9th year without a meaningful update. Most people who want one already have one. The used market is flooded for the few who don’t.
Look at how far half tons have come in 9 years. 21 mpg on the sticker was an easy sale when a Ram said 17. Not so anymore.
If one takes out fleet sales, the Accord outsold the Camry.
In March, 20% of Camry sales were to fleet and since 15% of Toyota sales in April was to fleet, a good portion of Camrys in April likely found their way to fleet again.
I am shocked that 764 people actually bought a Smart. That car needed a transmission fix since day one, and it was never done.
I believe that the growth in the Smart market is due to the car2go electric Smart car rental scheme.
Im really surprised the Sonic is selling so well. I really thought the Aveo carry over would just kill this car, but clearly it hasn’t. I never really thought of the Kia Soul as a sub-compact, seems like so much more in a very cute package. No wonder its selling.
What did PT Barnum say?
Nice numbers from Fiat, especially compared to last year’s launch. It may not hit its projected 50K units, but it looks to be on a consistent path to 40K.
I would like a chart ordered not by manufacturer’s name, but by sales number.