Ford was America’s best-selling auto brand in January 2015 as improved car sales, improved utility vehicle sales, and a 17% improvement in F-Series sales helped the brand to a 16% year-over-year improvement.
• Corolla the top-selling car
• CR-V leads all SUVs/crossovers
• Pickups account for 14.4% of all new vehicle sales
Only a handful of auto brands reported year-over-year decreases, and most of those brands were low-volume niche players: Maserati, Scion, Jaguar, and Smart. Buick’s 5.5% drop came as all three of the brand’s passenger cars declined.
America’s fastest-growing brands, on the other hand, were mostly mid-level players: Mitsubishi, Lexus, GMC, Porsche, Mini, and Subaru. Jeep volume jumped 23% to 51,523 units, and Ram’s 21% jump to 31,392 sales was also impressive.
January 2015 did act as a follow-up to a January one year earlier that saw sales fall 3% from 1.043M. Even compared with that January 2013 output, however, these January 2015 results appear strong, rising 10.5%.
| Automaker | Jan. 2015 | Jan. 2014 | % Change | 2015 YTD | 2014 YTD | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Acura
|
11,982 | 10,823 | 10.7% | 11,982 | 10,823 | 10.7% |
|
Alfa Romeo
|
97 | — | — | 97 | — | — |
|
Audi
|
11,541 | 10,101 | 14.3% | 11,541 | 10,101 | 14.3% |
|
BMW
|
18,981 | 18,253 | 4.0% | 18,981 | 18,253 | 4.0% |
|
Buick
|
12,553 | 13,278 | -5.5% | 12,553 | 13,278 | -5.5% |
|
Cadillac
|
11,680 | 11,386 | 2.6% | 11,680 | 11,386 | 2.6% |
|
Chevrolet
|
142,882 | 119,089 | 20.0% | 142,882 | 119,089 | 20.0% |
|
Chrysler
|
23,393 | 21,113 | 10.8% | 23,393 | 21,113 | 10.8% |
|
Dodge
|
35,347 | 34,905 | 1.3% | 35,347 | 34,905 | 1.3% |
|
Fiat
|
3,255 | 3222 | 1.0% | 3255 | 3222 | 1.0% |
| Ford | 170,822 | 147,521 | 15.8% | 170,822 | 147,521 | 15.8% |
|
GMC
|
35,671 | 27,733 | 28.6% | 35,671 | 27,733 | 28.6% |
|
Honda
|
90,202 | 80,808 | 11.6% | 90,202 | 80,808 | 11.6% |
|
Hyundai
|
44,505 | 44,005 | 1.1% | 44,505 | 44,005 | 1.1% |
|
Infiniti
|
9,658 | 8,998 | 7.3% | 9,658 | 8,998 | 7.3% |
|
Jaguar
|
1,266 | 1,347 | -6.0% | 1,266 | 1,347 | -6.0% |
|
Jeep
|
51,523 | 41,910 | 22.9% | 51,523 | 41,910 | 22.9% |
|
Kia
|
38,299 | 37,011 | 3.5% | 38,299 | 37,011 | 3.5% |
|
Land Rover
|
5,281 | 4,674 | 13.0% | 5,281 | 4,674 | 13.0% |
|
Lexus
|
23,131 | 17,637 | 31.2% | 23,131 | 17,637 | 31.2% |
|
Lincoln
|
6,619 | 5973 | 10.8% | 6619 | 5973 | 10.8% |
|
Maserati
|
452 | 568 | -20.4% | 452 | 568 | -20.4% |
|
Mazda
|
20,271 | 18,813 | 7.7% | 20,271 | 18,813 | 7.7% |
|
Mercedes-Benz
|
24,619 | 22,604 | 8.9% | 24,619 | 22,604 | 8.9% |
|
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
|
1,505 | 1,288 | 16.8% | 1,505 | 1,288 | 16.8% |
|
Total Mercedes-Benz
|
26,124 | 23,892 | 9.3% | 26,124 | 23,892 | 9.3% |
|
Mini
|
3,228 | 2,543 | 26.9% | 3,228 | 2,543 | 26.9% |
|
Mitsubishi
|
6493 | 4867 | 42.7% | 6493 | 4867 | 42.7% |
|
Nissan
|
94,449 | 81,472 | 15.9% | 94,449 | 81,472 | 15.9% |
|
Porsche
|
3,937 | 3,096 | 27.2% | 3,937 | 3,096 | 27.2% |
|
Ram
|
31,392 | 26,033 | 20.6% | 31,392 | 26,033 | 20.6% |
|
Scion
|
3,690 | 4,011 | -8.0% | 3,690 | 4,011 | -8.0% |
|
Smart
|
492 | 521 | -5.6% | 492 | 521 | -5.6% |
|
Subaru
|
40,812 | 33,000 | 23.7% | 40,812 | 33,000 | 23.7% |
|
Toyota
|
142,373 | 124,717 | 14.2% | 142,373 | 124,717 | 14.2% |
|
Volkswagen
|
23,504 | 23,494 | 0.04% | 23,504 | 23,494 | 0.04% |
|
Volvo
|
3,794 | 3,792 | 0.05% | 3,794 | 3,792 | 0.05% |
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
BMW-Mini
|
22,209 | 20,796 | 6.8% | 22,209 | 20,796 | 6.8% |
|
Chrysler Group/FCA
|
145,007 | 127,183 | 14.0% | 145,007 | 127,183 | 14.0% |
|
Daimler
|
26,616 | 24,413 | 9.0% | 26,616 | 24,413 | 9.0% |
|
Ford Motor Company
|
177,441 | 153,494 | 15.6% | 177,441 | 153,494 | 15.6% |
|
General Motors
|
202,786 | 171,486 | 18.3% | 202,786 | 171,486 | 18.3% |
|
Honda Motor Company
|
102,184 | 91,631 | 11.5% | 102,184 | 91,631 | 11.5% |
|
Hyundai-Kia
|
82,804 | 81,016 | 2.2% | 82,804 | 81,016 | 2.2% |
|
Jaguar-Land Rover
|
6,547 | 6,021 | 8.7% | 6,547 | 6,021 | 8.7% |
|
Nissan Motor Company
|
104,107 | 90,470 | 15.1% | 104,107 | 90,470 | 15.1% |
|
Toyota Motor Corporation
|
169,194 | 146,365 | 15.6% | 169,194 | 146,365 | 15.6% |
|
Volkswagen Group *
|
39,078 | 36,883 | 6.0% | 39,078 | 36,883 | 6.0% |
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
Industry Total **
|
1,152,480
|
1,013,426
|
13.7%
|
1,152,480
|
1,013,426
|
13.7% |
* Volkswagen Group includes sales figures for Audi, Bentley, Porsche, and Volkswagen brands
** Industry total takes into account Automotive News estimates for brands such as Tesla (2250 units) and other low-volume, high-priced manufacturers.
Way to go Nissan. Honda is now in Nissan’s rear view mirror!
My perception (admittedly a biased view from an acquaintance who sells Toyota) is that Nissan is into the “finance anybody with a pulse” mode and Honda not so much. Any other takes on this?
Exactly.
Look what it did for Mitsubishi.
CR also listed the models owners hate the most and Nissan had 3 out of 5 I believe.
Check out the editorial above. Carlos Ghosn has got the pulse of the American consumer as his target. Also, just as impressive, he has other world markets and their consumers in his crosshairs. I personally feel his only major misstep was the cross cabriolet.
Nissan earned 50% share:
“Consumer Reports: 6 cars, SUVs that owners hate most”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/12/09/consumer-reports-owner-survey-hate-worst/20122641/
Unfortunate products at cheap prices will pay handsome dividends in the future.
A fair number of Sentras and Altimas are sold to fleet customers. That boosts the Nissan tally.
But I read in these very forums that the new F150 was going to be a failure.
Nah, look at the numbers everyone’s a winner. Well, unless you’re a Buick
@mkirk,
Where does it state all of the F Series are the new F-150?
Around here (midwest) there are a lot of lowball price adverts for the “old” F-150. Anybody know the split on the sales report?
If the split favored the 2015, Ford would be crowing to wall street that “the 2015 F 150 is a big hit”. However, silence from Ford on the split. Anyone guess what the silence means? It is possible that after seeing the 2015 F 150 pricing, the public rushed in and bought a new 2014 F 150 … hence the sales surge.
It wouldn’t be the best test anyhow. The basic fleet trucks are still being built as 2014s for awhile.
I drive an F150. But it’s too early to tell on the new design, as there is always a surge in sales with a new design. I don’t believe many were available till January. Also, the sales numbers include a lot of leftover 2014’s. Finally, gas is cheap and pickup sales in general are strong. Time will tell. I find it something of a disappointment in terms of styling and real-world selling prices. My 2012 FX4 cost quite a bit less than I could replace it for today. I’m talking nearly $10K.
@mkirk – Maybe the F150 wold of been a bigger success if made out of aluminium instead of aluminum?
Aren’t the year-over-year results easy to explain? January 2014 had polar vortex, and I’m pretty sure sales were pretty low because of it.
This seems worth noting.
New England’s current Snowmageddon probably has some effect, too. Perhaps not to the same extent.
The author wrote “January 2015 did act as a follow-up to a January one year earlier that saw sales fall 3% from 1.043M. Even compared with that January 2013 output, however, these January 2015 results appear strong, rising 10.5%.” Not sure if that was added after your comment or not.
Its interesting to watch Dodge fall from the best to the worst selling brand of FCA. Once the minivans go to Chrysler, the transformation will be complete. Hopefully Sergio’s ego can keep it alive.
Ever since Fiat took over there has been a lot of internal debate about what Dodge should be. The trucks were stripped away, and it was rumored that Dodge and Alfa Romeo could be collapsed into the same brand like Chrysler and Lancia.
It looks like Dodge is set to become a “boutique” American muscle brand with the Viper, Charger, and Challenger serving as its core.
While Chrysler is now getting the volume models (200, T&C, etc), I think FCA should take this even further and replace the Dodge Dart with the Fiat Viaggio and Viaggio hatch. Let Fiat sell compact and sub-compact models and then let Chrysler take it from there.
It has been rumoured that Dodge as a brand was/is going to die. Ram may of been the first step in that plan but it seems that they backed off from removing performance vehicles from Dodge and placing them under the SRT umbrella.
Dart sales have been steadily improving. It was up over 60% from Jan ’14 to over 8,000 units. It broke into the top 20 nameplates sold (at #20), and was the best selling Dodge car last month. Since they worked the bugs out of them and repackaged the powertrains/trim packages, it really is a great value in GT or Limited trims. Tons of standard equipment for a reasonable sticker. I think the new 200 is drawing a lot of buyers in and some are buying the Dart because of the value story. The new 200 is picking up steam and outsold the Chevy Malibu for a second time. It sold over 14,000 units. Together, the 200 and Dart outsold the previous 200, Avenger and Dart combined. The Chrysler brand will be getting a 100 compact, which may or may not have a hatch version. Would like to have seen the Fiat Viaggio hatch sold here as the Dart hatch.
The remaining 2015 smart cars (and I can’t believe 521 people went for it!) will wither on the lots, because the 2016 promises to be so much better, I might even consider one.
I’m willing to bet that many of those 521 smartfortwo went to Cars2Go.
10 more units for VW? Look out, they’re on the way to 800000 this year!
Column 3 needs to say “January 2014”.
I know we like to look at these numbers, but I think it’s too soon to draw many conclusions. Q1 sales are always affected by everything from residual inventory clearances to weather to consumer Christmas debt, even political regime changes.
Let’s take note that Cadillac’s sales increased (though they still lost market share).
It was largely because of the Escalade and XTS. Sales of the ATS and CTS were down by 8 percent and 23.9 percent, respectively.
Wow, so many Corollas. That’s a lot of ‘bold’ people.
For <$17K + tax/tags/processing, the LE CVT I tested wasn't bad at all.
Scion – dead brand walking.
Mini is closing in – Porsche, Volvo, LR all beat – if the continue this rate of decline Mini and Fiat will be ahead by the end of the year. Lincoln is almost 2X Scion sales – it wasn’t that long ago that Scion was close to Lincoln in volume.
FR-S = Toyota Celica
tC = Corolla coupe (ya, I know it isn’t based on the Corolla, 99% of buyers won’t care – it’s the name)
Burn the rest with fire.
I wonder how much sales Corolla is taking away from stablemate Camry, since it is now the same size as the first gen back in ’83 and superior in just about every thing.
I did my part by buying Cadillac CTS VSport. Too bad for the wintry weather in New Jersey. Don’t have many chances to drive it.
Here’s an interesting way to see how well the new 2015 F-150 is selling.
1. The Colorado sold nearly 6 000 and the Canyon 2 200. That’s 8 200 GM mid sizers. They were released after the F-150 as well.
2. Ford has sold approximately 10 000 new aluminium F-150s. Only 18% of F-150’s sold in Jan were 2015 models. This means 82% were the steel ones. I do believe some of the overly zealous remarks on the success of the 2015 F-150 might be premature.
3. I would have a great laugh if in February the Colorado Canyon twins out sell the new and “fast selling-flying of the lots 2015 F-150s”.
Hmmm………makes for some interesting thoughts on how good the Colorado might do.
The diesel Colorado Canyon can’t come soon enough.
I also read that Ford is employing another 1 550 workers in Kansas City and some panel stamping shop, for the 2015 F-150.
This is apparently due to demand. So, how well or how much has Ford underestimated manpower requirements?
Like I’ve stated this is going to be one drawn out and expensive gamble on Fords part.