Ford’s second-generation Transit Connect is losing market share at a furious rate.

However, that’s not a valid commentary on the Transit Connect, but rather a side effect of a revolution in the small commercial van category.

Transit Connect sales jumped 72% in the first month of 2015 to the highest January level in the model’s brief history. 55% of the small commercial van category belonged to the Transit Connect in January 2015, down from 71% in January 2014 despite the Transit Connect’s 1543-unit improvement. Read More >

Although General Motors’ full-size truck twins failed to outsell the Ford F-Series in January 2015, GM still came out on top as the best-selling truck manufacturer in America last month.

In the previous five months, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra had accomplished this feat on their own, outselling the F-Series by 939 units in August 2014, 7076 in September, 2120 in October, 6294 in November, and 6918 units in December 2014. (The F-Series outsold the Silverado/Sierra by 12,263 units in calendar year 2014 and the total GM pickup truck family by 1045 units.)

• Colorado/Canyon sales steadily rising

• 14 of GM pickup sales generated by midsize trucks

• Still not approaching historic levels

Fast forward to January, when pickup truck volume jumped 22% year-over-year and the F-Series’ core F-150 line became more available in new aluminum-intensive form, and GM’s bigger set of twins fell 5643 sales short of overtaking the F-Series for a sixth consecutive month. But viewed as a full-line pickup truck manufacturer, GM’s 42% YOY improvement to nearly 57,000 sales was more than enough to fend off Ranger-less Ford.

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Up to this point, the arrival of a potential familial rival has not hindered the success of the Lexus RX, America’s favourite premium brand utility vehicle.

The RX, still a relatively affordable two-row Lexus crossover, has been sold alongside the more affordable but somewhat less spacious NX since the very end of November. 5717 copies of the NX were sold in December and January combined. Year-over-year, U.S. sales of the RX rose 8% to 20,194 over the same period.

• RX sales reached an eight-year high in 2014

• 2905 NXs sold in December; 2812 in January

Admittedly, the RX’s rate of growth doesn’t compare well with that of the overall SUV/crossover market. RX sales increased just 3% in the 2014 calendar year and 3% in December specifically. January’s 17% jump translated to 962 extra sales in a SUV/crossover market which rose 19%. U.S. SUV/crossover sales were up 12% in December and in 2014 as a whole.

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Aside from holding onto its global sales crown for another year, Toyota is also doing well at the bank thanks to a weaker yen.

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The Honda CR-V, soon to be the middle rung on Honda’s crossover ladder, was America’s best-selling SUV in January 2015.

This was the CR-V’s fifth consecutive month atop the SUV/CUV leaderboard. 2014 was the third consecutive year that the CR-V led the category on an annual basis.

• CR-V accounted for 26% of Honda brand sales

• Pilot sales nearly doubled, YOY

• Jeeps grab three top 10 spots for tenth time in eleven months

Perhaps of more interest than the CR-V’s position relative to its peers is its new-found dominance in Honda showrooms.

Although the CR-V didn’t outsell all non-pickup trucks in January as it did during the previous two months, the CR-V was Honda’s most popular model for the fourth consecutive month. Read More >

In January 2015, for the second consecutive month and the fourth time in the last six months, the Toyota Camry was not America’s best-selling passenger car.

But after holding the title in October and November – and the 2014 calendar year – the Camry ceded the crown to a sibling, not a rival, in January.

• Four top sellers post YOY improvements

• Hyundai held out of top 10

• Sixth-ranked Civic posts seventh consecutive decline

Sales of the Toyota Corolla jumped 20% to 27,357 units, 8658 more than the number of sales reported by the next-best-selling small car, Honda’s Civic.

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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.

Starting in April, France will encourage diesel drivers to replace their oil burners with electric power through an incentive up to €10,000 ($11,422 USD).

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Volkswagen USA reported a 59-month low in Jetta sales in January 2015, just the second four-digit Jetta sales month in the last four and a half years, and a narrow ten-unit year-over-year overall brand improvement.

The Volkswagen brand sold 23,494 vehicles in January 2014, down 19% compared with January 2013’s output.

January 2015 sales were up 0.04% compared with January 2014 – which was the tenth of 18 consecutive year-over-year monthly U.S. sales declines – but, rather obviously, were down 19% compared with January 2013 levels. Read More >

EV and PHEV manufacturers may have fared well in Western Europe last year, but further gains in the market aren’t likely for some time to come.

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While visiting a dealership is de rigueur for most, an increasing number of consumers are turning to technology to buy their cars.

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Rough starts do not invariably lend credence to the belief that 2015 will be full of doom and gloom. Although January accounts for 8.5% of a calendar year, the month was responsible for just 6.7% of all new vehicle sales in 2013; only 6.1% of all new vehicle sales in 2014.

For a number of auto brands, however, 2015 could be difficult. At Scion, for example, sales fell 7% in 2013 and 15% in 2013, decreasing in 19 consecutive months before January 2015’s 8% year-over-year decline.

• Encore sales up 46.5% in January

• Regal falls into three-digit territory

• GM car sales down 7.3%

Jaguar volume slid 6% in January, a poor follow-up to 2014’s 7% drop. Although the XE will help, it’ll be a while before the brand’s new entry-level model actually lands. Smart is entering a transition phase, and the 6% drop in January to just 492 sales translated to the brand’s lowest-volume month since January 2013 and the second-lowest since November 2011.

Meanwhile, the 20% and 50% drops at Maserati and Bentley, respectively, equal slight volume decreases which could easily be made up in a single month at some point down the road.

But after 2014’s 11% increase – the fifth consecutive year in which annual volume has improved – and ten monthly YOY improvements in 2014, Buick sales slid 5.5% in January 2015. Read More >

The Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon combined to own 31.8% of the small/midsize U.S. pickup truck market in January 2015, up from near nonexistence one year ago.

This meant the class-leading Toyota Tacoma saw its market share plunge by more than 17 percentage points.

Yet Tacoma sales increased in January, rising 1567 units, or 16%, to 11,409 units, 3262 more than the Colorado and Canyon managed.

Since the new GM trucks became readily available in November, and in the lead-up to the debut of a refreshed 2016 Tacoma, sales of Toyota’s sub-Tundra truck have jumped 10%. Read More >

Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn warned Monday that Russia’s auto market will lose a third of itself under the nation’s recession.

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January 2015 was the first month since July of last year in which the Ford F-Series outsold GM’s full-size twins, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.

Between August and December, F-Series sales slid 3%, not unpredictably. As Ford became more firmly entrenched in the F-150 transition phase, sales perked up in January 2015. Rising just as quickly as the fast-growing overall full-size truck market, F-Series sales increased to the highest level since January 2004. (F-Series volume in January 2015 was nearly double what it was in January 2010.)

• Ford outsells GM twins for the first time since July

• GM increases market share, Ram loses market share

• Full-size trucks lose a small amount of market share to small/midsize trucks

Though outsold by the F-Series, it certainly wasn’t a bad month for the big GM trucks. Their market share improved by more than a full percentage point as the Silverado posted a 25% improvement to 36,106 units.

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