GM and Ford reported new monthly record sales in China, says the usually reliable government-owned China Daily. Really?

Ford said its China sales rose 17.8 percent. Ford is a relative nobody in China. File under “never mind.”

GM China’s May numbers are much more remarkable. They need to be carefully read. Tread carefully: Cleverly hidden landmines ahead! Read More >

TTAC’s May sales analysis can’t stop, won’t stop, with this look at medium and large non-luxury SUVs. Only GM made real progress over May 2009’s numbers… everyone else is lucky to be treading water here.

Ford and Chevy blew the lid off our 30k-unit graph limit… don’t count the big trucks out just yet.

We may love compact pickups here at TTAC, but apparently we’re in the minority. On the other hand, if the segment had some fresh blood, this graph might look a bit different…

Minivans, microvans, cargo vans. If it has rolling rear doors, you’ll find it here.

The big surprise in this segment? The fact that Nissan’s Versa has quietly become America’s top choice in the B-segment. All of a sudden we’re anxious to find out what percentage of those sales are of the sub-$10k stripper version. But even if that percentage is high, it wouldn’t mean that this segment sells on price alone. After all, Kia’s Soul is steadily gaining fans despite costing more compared to the competition than Kias usually do. In short, upscale does work… even for budget brands in a budget segment.

TTAC’s May sales analysis rolls on with this peek at the mid- and full-size crossover segment, which still looks to be waiting for a definitive competitor. But with other segments growing faster than this one, don’t expect a huge investment here anytime soon.

These cars may never go off the road, but it’s also beginning to look like their sales won’t go off the rails any time soon either. Kia’s Sportage was the big year-over-year loser last month, but it’s about to be replaced with an all-new model. The battle continues…

Ah, segment analysis. Each automaker has its own product strategy, and none of them are designed to make apples-to-apples comparisons easy. So we’ve lumped large family sedans from automakers with a mass-market sedan positioned above their mainline D-segment sedan (Impala, Azera, Avalon, Taurus) in with entry-premium FWD cars like the ES350 and Buick LaCrosse. Since we’re comparing a nebulous segment anyway, we threw in the entire sales performances from entry-premium brands like Volvo, Saab and Acura. Not a perfect comparison in many ways (Impala would be better compared to the D-segment sedans below, for starters), but then we’re not charging you a damn consulting fee, are we?

Midsized. Family sedans. D Segment. Camccords. Whatever you call them, they did pretty well last month, with only the Camry losing year-over-year volume.

With today’s release of Chevy Cruze pricing information driving debate over compact-segment value, what better way to kick off our May sales analysis than with a look at some of the biggest names in the “C” segment? From top to bottom, each of the big nameplates in this segment enjoyed year-over-year growth last month. Can the new Cruze steal some of that growth from its established peers?

Remember carmageddon? It is not forgotten in Germany. As a matter of fact, Germany’s biggest carmageddon happened last month, in May. While champagne corks popped in the U.S., propelled by a 19 percent plus in May, the Germans are crying into their beers. According to numbers released by the German Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA,) the new car market collapsed by heart attack inducing 35.1 percent in May. That’s not the worst part of the story. Read More >