September 2015 was a massive month for the U.S. auto industry, as the SAAR (seasonally adjusted annual rate) shot past 18 million sales and year-over-year volume jumped 16 percent. The auto industry marked the end of the third quarter having produced five-percent growth compared with the same period one year ago, making possible the idea that American consumers, businesses, and governments will purchase and lease more than 17 million new vehicles in 2015 for the first time in 14 years.
That’s the overall theme. These are some of the more interesting numbers which help make it so.
2,630 Non-Golf Golfs: Even before Volkswagen’s dirty diesel scandal, the majority of Golf hatchbacks (ignoring the SportWagen for the moment) sold in the United States aren’t even available with a diesel engine. The gas-only GTI, gas-only Golf R, and electric-only e-Golf generated 69 percent of total Golf hatchback sales in September.
25 Days: September 2015 wasn’t the same as September 2014 for a number of reasons, but key among those reasons was the fact that this September was longer than last September. There were 25 selling days last month; 24 in the same period last year. Indeed, in 2014, auto sales from the high-volume Labour Day weekend were included in August’s tally, not September’s. That wasn’t the case this year. While volume jumped 16 percent, the daily sales rate was up by a more reasonable 11 percent.
34,487 Camrys: America’s perennial best-selling car, the Toyota Camry, recorded a 21-percent leap to 34,487 sales in September, the seventh consecutive month in which U.S. Camry volume has topped 34,000. The September result was particularly meaningful because the Camry led a car sector which produced a six-percent gain. Year-to-date, car sales are down two percent.
53 Percent: More than half the Minis sold in America in September and so far this year — 53 percent to be precise — are fitted with four passenger doors. Most Minis, therefore, aren’t the most mini of Minis.
553 Percent: Swedish SUV enthusiasts were waiting for the launch of the second-generation XC90 for years. The new XC90 arrived in the spring and, while still not selling like the BMW X5 or Mercedes-Benz GLE, reached its highest sales level yet in September with a 553-percent jump to 1,182 units. With the XC90, Volvo sales jumped 18 percent. XC90 apart, Volvo was down three percent.
214,743 Trucks: U.S. pickup truck sales rose 11 percent in September, generating more than 200,000 sales for the third consecutive month. Year-to-date, pickups account for 14.3 percent of the industry’s total volume, up 13.6 percent in 2014.
-1: With the loss of the Dodge Avenger, FCA’s U.S. dealers now fight the midsize war with just one nameplate, the Chrysler 200. While 200 sales rose three percent in September, combined 200/Avenger volume was down 10 percent. Mind you, this was an anomaly. Year-to-date, combined 200/Avenger sales are up 19 percent, or nearly 24,000 units.
+123K: Total U.S. SUV/crossover volume jumped 31 percent to more than 522,000 units in September 2015, a gain of nearly 123,000 extra sales, year-over-year. The five top sellers accounted for one-quarter of the sector’s sales.
995 Jaguars: Jaguar sold fewer than 1,000 cars in September 2015, the first month since November 2012 that Jaguar failed to produce four-digit results.
66: Through the first nine months of 2015, only 66 sales separate the best-selling premium brand in America, BMW, from the second-best-selling premium brand, Mercedes-Benz. Combined, BMW and Mercedes-Benz (excluding Sprinter) produced 499,846 sales in the first nine months of 2015.
3,988 Econolines: Long since replaced, Ford reported 3,988 sales of the E-Series in September. Together with its replacement, the Transit (10,154), and the smaller Transit Connect (3,852), Ford’s market share among commercial vans rose to 52 percent in September 2015 from 44 percent one year ago.
6 Models: As Ford Motor Company’s massive investment in Lincoln begins to take hold, the brand’s nine percent uptick through the first three-quarters of 2015 is superior to the growth rate of the industry. In September, every one of Lincoln’s six nameplates posted year-over-year improvements — even the MKT. The MKT’s 66-percent jump to 430 sales meant one out of every 20 Lincolns sold looked like this.
1 TSX: Acura’s 10 percent year-over-year growth rate through the first three-quarters of 2015 comes as the top-selling MDX falls 10 percent; as the TLX sedan propels the car division to a 31-percent year-over-year gain. Old Acuras? They’re nearly gone. Just the one solitary TSX was sold in the U.S. in September, along with one TL. Two TSX SportWagons found homes in 2015.
Gen 8: The launch of the new, eighth-generation Nissan Maxima is a slow one. Since the beginning of August, only 8,121 Maximas have been sold in America, a 23-percent year-over-year decline.
44% Market Share: In a subcompact segment which slid three percent even in a particularly strong month for the U.S. auto industry, the segment-leading Nissan Versa jumped 50 percent to 18,053 September sales. That’s 44 percent of the category, a year-over-year market share gain of 16 percentage points.
158 Percent: Some of the missing subcompact car buyers are spending a little bit more cash to get into a subcompact SUV, an urban crossover, a cute-ute, a whatever-you-wanna-call-it. Led by the Jeep Renegade, these little utility vehicles jumped 158 percent to 40,713 units in September, just below the 41,220 vehicles sold in the core subcompact category.
15K: Both the Indiana-built Outback and the imported Forester produced September sales records for Subaru last month. The Forester, Subaru’s top seller, attracted 15,364 customers. The second-ranked Outback was up 34 percent to 15,126 September sales.
5,250 Cars: As the industry took off in September and even passenger cars sold more often than they did a year ago, Cadillac’s car division tumbled 21 percent to only 5,250 sales. With the Escalade family’s 20-percent drop, it was left to the aged SRX to locate customers. SRX volume jumped 85 percent to 6,849 units, the third consecutive month in which the SRX recorded more than 6,700 sales. Cadillac averaged fewer than 4,300 monthly SRX sales at the third quarter of 2014.
3/10: Only 30 percent of the passenger car nameplates on sale in the United States are generating greater sales volume in 2015 than they did in the first nine months of 2014.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.
“Total U.S. SUV/crossover volume jumped 31 percent to more than 522,000 units”
So progresseth the Death of Little Crampy Cars.
Yay.
Yup, and gas should stay cheap well up to year 2020-2025.
I’m curious to see in next month’s rundown if the 500L gets a noticeable Pope Francis bump. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit.
“Long since replaced, Ford reported 3,988 sales of the E-Series in September.”
Hm. Not so sure about this. Ford still makes the E-350 and E-450 in Cutaway Cab versions. Now I’m not saying that these are included in “E-Series” sales figures, but I’m not saying they’re not, either.
Perhaps you could clarify this.
http://shop.ford.com/build/eseries-cutaway/
The E-Series sales that are showing are the big dog cutaway versions.
I kind of figured as much. Still, that’s a lot of U-Haul trucks and ambulances and RVs!!
It is certainly many. I wonder when Ford will have a Transit that is heavy duty enough to replace the E-Series cutaway.
In Aug/Sep U-Haul got some brand new E-Series U-Haul vans in for the huge military population in this area to self-move themselves for transfers prior to the new fiscal year starting 1 Oct 2015.
But I don’t know if these were vans brought by people coming to this area, or outgoing vans reserved for people leaving this area.
“even the MKT. The MKT’s 66-percent jump to 430 sales meant one out of every 20 Lincolns sold looked like this.”
Hey man. That MkT grille is better than the new grille. And if you just look at it from the side it isn’t that scary.
I actually like the look of the MKT..I do realize that I am in a very very small minority. Sorta like to folks who bring their own hot sauce to a restaurant. It is distinctive and somewhat fast in ECO boost form.
It’s grown on me. I really like the profile, like the shape, and don’t hate the rest. It’s a really good car that has never sold well. It is also fast for what it is. I accidently touched 110 last weekend.
I would to have an MKT and a CMax as my two cars..
I drive weird cars that Ford can’t seem to sell. I also turned my daughter’s Cozy Coupe into a Ford Cozy Coupe ST. I had extra badging laying around.
The Ford Cozy Coupe ST sounds awesome. For my second Christmas, I received a pedal truck that Dad had converted into a Chevy thanks to some reflective tape “bowties.”
So Caddies best selling car is their oldest. Seems to be it was just folks who
1: wanted a lux CUV
2: did like the other Euro/ Asian choices
3; Just wanted a Caddie.
They really need to redo this soon so that they can cash in on this.
It sells more than all of their sedans combined!!!!
I know scary right? So does this say more about the goodness of the SRX or the poor overall dynamics of their sedans?
I don’t know how much goodness the SRX has. I mean, it’s fine, but I can’t think of a luxury midsized CUV that it’s better than. It is certainly cheap on a lease though.
It might say that buyers are taking the midsize SRX because Cadillac doesn’t have a compact CUV.
Plaid seats, sunroof, and small wheels. Wish we got that GTI combo in the US.
YOU MUST BUY GIANT WHEELS IF YOU WANT SUNROOF!
The best thing to do is buy the model with 18s and a sunroof and swap with someone who got 17s.
And you lose the plaid that way, bummer I would go for plaid and a large sunroof on a GTI but VW does not want to make it here.
You can’t have plaid and sunroof?!?!?!
The equipment groups giveth and the equipment groups taketh away. You almost have to buy three cars and switch features to get what you want, and try to return the other two to the dealer for a full refund (hah!). It doesn’t much matter what you want to order, because the dealer will waste at least an hour of your time trying to get you to buy something off the lot.
Not in the US anymore.
Wow. A single car with a 44% market share in it’s segment! The Nissan Versa must be hitting the nail on the head to have that kind of market share. Just wondering…..is there any other car/truck/suv with that kind of market share in the US? I know the Versa is high content with a fairly low cost.
Versa: the joy and happiness of every rental-car agency in the USA!
I’ll bet a nickel that if you took away fleet sales, the Versa does mediocre at best.
The Versa is hardly unique among U.S. models (or even within the Nissan product line) in that regard.
See also: Altima, Chrysler 200/300, Chevy Impala, Ford Fusion…
Loss of fleet sales would also kick the Camry and Corolla off the best-selling sedan pedestals.
Maybe the Miata for the convertible roadster segment?
How does Tim Cain explain the most drastic decline in sales of all? The Honda Fit was down to 1279 September sales.
Fit sales have been at near 6,000 per month until June when the nosedive to paltry September sales began.
The Fit derived CUV. Its only a bit more in price with more space.
Fit is kind of already there being a five door hatch. Needs 30 in wheels and it will be good to go.
Thirty inch wheels with rubber bands? That would be one jarring ride. Unless you mean 30″ artillery-type spoked wheels from the Model-T. That would be a unique look, but cornering might suffer a bit.
HR-V.
Article on Fit coming soon.
I cannot believe they sold 8,121 hideous Maximas. That’s 8,120 more than I had projected.