With 17.6% of the U.S. market in January 2015, General Motors increased its market share from January 2014’s 16.9% but slid back from December’s 18.2%.
GM car sales slid 7% to account for just 32% of the automaker’s January volume. Light trucks at General Motors – including a pickup range that grew its sales by 42% – jumped 36%.
The big loser? That’d be the Koreans. Hyundai and Kia combined to own 8% of the U.S. market in January 2014, a figure which fell to 7.2% in January 2015. New vehicle sales rose 14% in America last month, year-over-year. Hyundai volume rose to a record-setting January level of 82,804 sales, but the 1% gain severely trailed the industry. Kia sales were up a little more than 3%, although the brand’s car division slid 3% on falling Optima and Cadenza volume.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.
Looks like the whole “Government Motors” meme is over. American have forgiven GM, and now it’s all motherhood, apple pie and Chevrolet!
I wonder if Hyundai’s problems have something to do with the fact that they’ve been replacing stylish and innovative cars with bland Toyota copies. That’s got to have an effect on the bottom line, one way or another.
Easy financing and rebates? Your average American is far more pragmatic than they like to admit.
Hyundai’s problem isn’t styling, it’s that their lineup is almost entirely 4 cylinder economy cars in a market with cheap gas and easy credit that doesn’t have to settle for that right now.
The cars have massive cash on the hood – row after row of Sonatas and Elantras at 20% under invoice – just to maintain what they sold last year. Meanwhile the Santa Fe/Sorento twins are barely discounted at all and up 11% YOY.
I had a few Sonata V6 sedans as rentals, when they still offered a normally-aspirated V6 a few years back, and I liked them a lot. They were responsive to throttle input and returned good value in fuel economy.
And although I understood the management decision by Hyundai to drop the V6 in favor of the 4-bangers, I think the luster came off the Hyundai brand when buyers could no longer opt for the V6 in the midsize sedans.
Many potential buyers just can’t get excited about 4-bangers, no matter how gussied up they are. Four bangers, three bangers and two bangers have a place in American-market vehicles, but only in small vehicles designed for economy and fuel efficiency.
Most Americans don’t care about the price of gasoline. They’ll buy it no matter what the price is. Proven over and over again, time after time that gas prices shot up.
IMO, a 3-liter V6 should be the smallest engine in a midsize car or midsize truck, and 5-liter V8 the smallest engine in a half-ton truck. Anything with more displacement than that is gravy. Lusty gravy!
3 liter midsizers made sense when they were 150-200hp or so. Nowadays you can get that out of a 2.5 or so 4-banger, and most buyers do just that. You personally might want more cubes to compensate for altitude issues, but that’s not a general concern.
As for the Sonata, the decision to go 4-cylinder only shaved a few hundred pounds off the car, and people who want the extra cylinders can buy the Azera.
Sure, I understand that, and 4-bangers are cheaper to make than any V6, with fewer parts and simpler designs.
The new 4-bangers of today will also be “the norm” for the younger generations, if they are into cars and trucks the way my generation is/was, because they will never have experienced the raw attraction of, or the love affair with, V8 or V10 engines in their daily drivers.
I’ve got what I want in my vehicles and it is unlikely that I’ll be buying any more new vehicles in the future.
The number of mid-sizers sold with v6s rounds to just about none, even in those that still offer them. Even the non-turbo 4s are more than adequate for the overwhelming majority of people who buy this type of car. Does your grocery getter/commuter really need more than 180-200hp?
Can you give me the name and location of the Hyundai dealers offering these discounts?
All 3 of my local dealers are still offering cars at ~$2000 over MSRP. I’ll travel to save that money.
eggsalad, if I may jump in here. Contact Borman Auto Group in Las Cruces, NM. I highly recommend them. I bought my grand daughter’s 2011 Elantra there, years ago (May 2011).
Borman sells multiple brands. They have a stellar reputation for customer support and customer care. They don’t waste your time playing games and have one price per vehicle for everyone. You take it or leave it. In my experience it has ALWAYS been less than MSRP.
They’re easy to get to from anywhere in the US by flying in to El Paso International airport, and they are 50 miles NW off I-10.
My (now former) son-in-law years ago flew from LAX to ELP to pick up his (then new) Santa Fe, and the sales person picked him up at the airport for free. Everything was ready when he got there.
He drove his new ride off the lot, onto I-10, and West to Los Angeles, CA.
Thanks for the tip! Las Cruces is a (long) 1-day drive back to Vegas.
eggsalad, the trip isn’t bad. Light traffic most of the way. I’ve driven it many times from Dog Canyon where I live 75 miles further East of Las Cruces, to Henderson.
I-10 speedlimit is 75mph. Traffic cruises at 85mph. Many exceed even that. Not unusual to cruise at 90mph between cities. Towns are located along “Business Route” parallels alongs!de I-10. Only Tucson and Phoenix see massive traffic increases on I-10.
Las Cruces to Tucson, <5hrs, 90 minutes to Phoenix, then North to Vegas. Depending on stops along the way, we've traveled to Henderson anywhere from 12 to 15 hours total, depending on variables.
Market share for the Koreans in the lux sector (Genesis sedan, Equus and K900) has actually been increasing and that’s w/o any lux CUVs.
Well, what do you know? GM has one of the biggest recalls in history. Hopes for its second demise are gleefully touted by the blogerrati. Blow-dried Congressmembers fall over themselves to pillory GM in front of TV cameras. And the company has the largest year-over-year increase of any maker and increases its market share. It must be difficult for many to consider that GM may actually know something about the car business, and when gas prices rise will have a line of high-mileage gas as well as electrics to keep that share. How disappointing!
I work for at a Kia dealer I feel the main problem is past brand reputation and not having any enough Cuvs or any larger suv, trucks which make up a decent portion of the U.S. market
Kia Optima feels pretty obsolete already by today’s standards. The only good thing about it is style (which HK will get rid in the next facelift). New Sonata even though got understated facelift has a better appointed and more premium looking interior and less boring exterior style than all its Japanese competitors.
“Obsolete” is going a bit far – after all, the current Optima still betters newer models like the Camry and Altima in several comparison tests (and C&D still ranks the Optima higher than the refreshed Camry).
And the interior is still pretty decent by today’s standards (the refresh improved the design of the dash), although spy shots of the new Optima indicates a leap up.
The Optima sold well last yr despite its age – it hasn’t been the issue as much as declining small car sales and not having enough CUVs (both models and supply).
H/K’s problem is similar to that of VW and Cadillac – way too dependent on car/sedan sales when it is the CUV/SUV/truck segments which have been booming.
And it’s not just a limited CUV lineup, but limited supply of what they do have (Toyota and Nissan have far more extensive CUV lineups and they also have much greater capacity to build them).
This CUV capacity issue isn’t going to ameliorated somewhat until the new Kia plant in Mexico is finished.
What also has been hurting them is the aggressive discounting by Toyota and Nissan due to the cheap Yen and Kia just starting to redo its lineup.
I love how Subaru has higher market share here than the VW Group.
How important is the American market to Subaru’s auto making business?
The US market is absolutely critical to Subaru. They have almost no presence in China, they only sell a handful of cars in Europe, and they aren’t all that popular in Japan.
The American market is about 60% of Subaru’s world sales. I would think Subaru is pretty important to the economy of the Lafayette, Indiana area also as a large number of their vehicles are built there. But there may be trouble on the horizon for Subaru (and other Japanese brands) if the dockworker strike on the West Coast comes to pass. The sales of brands sourcing parts and whole vehicles from overseas will be hurt, probably Subaru more that others in that it runs pretty close to its manufacturing capacity.
I love how Nissan has more market share than Honda.
Also, I wonder if FCA will ever be able to outsell Toyota.
I was surprised how close Nissan and Honda are in sales, I would have thought Nissan would have been far ahead. Nissans seem to be discounted more readily and they have a much wider variety of vehicle types. And how in the heck does Subaru outsell Volkswagen? What happened to Volkswagens plan to take over the world? I just can’t understand what’s taking them so long to build competitive vehicles that people are looking for in the US market. Where is their Honda CRV? When will they figure out that no one cares about diesels in passenger cars in the US?
In my area, Nissan is trying really hard to sell their Altima, often for as low as $18K plus tt&l, with many to choose from. And this is with AC and Cruise, hubcaps, PW and PD.
But if you’re in need of a sedan you’d be foolish to choose a Corolla or Civic with an ATP of well over $20K for the most modest versions, if you can get a midsize Altima for $18K.
My friends just bought 4 cylinder Altima for $19K. They told me that it has nicely appointed interior and is loaded with features. They are happy since saved lot of cash. Very cheap. I bought my Fusion for $30 for comparison but it has ecoboost.
Yeah, they’re usually sold full-pop, except for cast-alloy wheels. But they are a really great bargain if you have to commute great distances, like 200mi roundtrip per day.
But I would be hardpressed to keep an Altima beyond the factory warranty, or any Nissan product for that matter.
Trade if off for a new one before the factory warranty expires. Let inevitable breakdowns and repair expenses be someone else’s worry.
VW is in process of blitzkrieg successfully taking over the world. But US did not enter the war yet (blame slow reacting Obama). Wait until it happens. I am not so sure that America in its current state can withstand massive invasion by VW group of armies when Germans finally decide it is time to conquer America in all seriousness.
Or Toyota outsell Ford
Subie is all about CUVs and AWD (same reason why Jeep is growing by leaps and bounds) – whereas VW’s CUV lineup is old and overpriced for the American market.
Cheap gas is crushing car sales – we’ve seen this pattern over and over again.
Hyundai dropped the ball on the refresh of several models and their CUV lineup is over priced. Wrong product mix for current market.
I’m guessing VAG is VW, Porsche and Audi combined? Not much share for the three.
VW reigns supreme in many markets but the plan for world domination will go nowhere if they don’t heat up their sales in the US market.
They are a close #2 in the world without the US. I would say their world domination plans are working out just fine without us.
Indeed, VW will very likely overtake Toyota in 2015 as world’s largest automaker with something like 10.3 to 10.5 million sold. And it certainly won’t be from sales in the U.S.
I can actually envision that, with the vast majority of VW sales coming in Asia (China, Viet Nam, India, Indonesia, et al).
I suspect VW sales here have either gone to peeJ or Subie.
Actually, Hyundai can’t meet demand for the Santa Fe and Santa Fe Sport, much less the aged Tuscon (actually increase sales last year as Hyundai USA managed to grab more supply).
Hyundai management has concentrated too much on the China market and bungled the CUV supply for the US market (VW has similar issues with regard to CUVs).
I’m surprised Daimler’s share is as large as it is.
Vans
2.3%, hovering right by VAG (Audi) and BMW/MINI isn’t really surprising.
It is the brand many people aspire to, especially the successful younger generation. Many of the new M-Bs on the road are actually leased. There’s a guy in my area who owns four of them, different models and different years.
One of them is a Gullwing 300 he brought back from Germany during his active duty military days. Another is a 240D, still rattling along to this day. His daily driver remains his Silver 450SEL. And then there is his wife’s late model ML350.
It should come as no surprise that all of his kids follow in his footsteps and also choose M-B as their ride of choice, even if they can’t afford it.
The overwhelming majority of luxury cars have been leased for 30 years or more now. All brands.
If you can afford a $40K pickup truck, you can afford a quite nice Mercedes.
That 4 banger Hyundai effect hitting Fusion?
Hyundai and Kia need some true off roaders and even pickups. If they can achieve that their sales numbers could easily surpass Nissan.
I had a 2004 Kia Sorento, it was a BOF 4×4 with a hi-lo transfer case. the new Sorento as nice as it is isn’t an off roader. Sort of the way Nissan went with the Pathfinder, another vehicle reduced.
Hyundai/Kia to have a pickup would mean to manufacture in the US. This would be out of the question due to numbers needed to be sold to justify billions spent on setting up a plant.
I don’t think the Trans Pacific Trade agreement will alter the impost placed on importing a light truck from Korea. It seems the US doesn’t want to alter it’s stance with Asian nations in comparison to EU nations regarding the “25% impost” on light trucks.
So Hyundai/Kia must come up with other ideas to bolster their numbers.
Maybe venture into performance style vehicles? I don’t know if this will work either.
They could produce a large 4×4 SUV with a V8 or turbo V6.
They are in a bit of a jam.
They used to offer true off-roaders in North America, but those didn’t sell as well as the crossovers that replaced them.
Given Nissan and Toyota’s struggles to get more than single-digit pickup market share, I doubt Hyundai would bother. It would only make sense if they could use the same platform in other markets, but nobody else wants US-style pickups.
@heavyhandle,
Nissan and Toyota didn’t invest into their pickups. That is full size and mid size.
Any company would of had those issues.
I think Nissan’s problem with investing in pickups can be directed at the Renault part of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
Even the D40 when it came out was okay, but the pickup became very dated quickly in the styling department. The Taco faired better.
I do hope Toyota and Nissan have learnt their lesson, don’t take a market for granted.
Big Al,
Nissan’s problem with the Titan is that it wasn’t a very good product. The Toyota full-sizer is reliable, even though it doesn’t offer enough engine and chassis choices. I have a friend who owns a shop that specializes in full-sized pickups and truck fleets, and he tells me that the Titan has been bad news from day one and hasn’t really improved. Every once in a while, one of his customers will buy a few at a really cheap price, with the promise that all the problems have been fixed. It’s all bunk, and he ends-up up having to fix countless electrical and mechanical issues, with minimal support from Nissan.
I think that Nissan did learn a bit of American country wisdom from their pickup fiasco: “don’t throw good money after bad.” The new Titan is an NV2500 frame with a third-party motor, so it’s a freebie in automotive terms.
Hard to believe Subaru outsells VW group.