In today’s wode tian (OMG) moment, China’s People’s Daily reports that “a total 16.7 million vehicles were sold in China last year, bringing the country’s total vehicles to more than 186 million.” Shen me? (Excuse me?)
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Category: Sales
This graph of Hyundai’s market since 1993 is a refreshing antidote to yesterday’s depressing Detroit market share picture. And it doesn’t take a whiz kid to deduce the single most important factor in Hyundai’s success. Notice a bit of an uptick starting in 1998? That was the year Hyundai introduced its 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty. It’s been suggested before on these pages that GM should address its “perception gap” with meaningful improvements in warranty coverage rather than more talk. After all, if it could fix Hyundais weak 1990s-era rep, it couldn’t hurt The General’s. This seems to be conclusive proof that warranties matter as much as the products they cover. After all, what good are a few extra horsepower or more interior room to a consumer compared to insulation from risk?
Unfortunately, we’ve discovered a slight problem with our list, namely that imported and domestically-produced models are listed separately (as our data comes from a firm that mostly works with suppliers). For the Top 25, this means that the numbers for vehicles produced domestically and imported (like the CRV and RAV4) are off. We ask for your patience while we work with our data provider to fix this problem.
What’s wrong with this picture? TTAC loves sales data, but lately we’ve become a little jaded with our own efforts to provide a thorough look under the hood of the industry. And as everyone in the auto business knows, when the going gets tough, the tough get outsourcing. TTAC is proud to announce that we’ve concluded a deal with the fine data crunchers at Morgan & Company, giving us (and you!) access to their magical spreadsheet kingdom. Needless to say, we’ll be spending much of 2010 wallowing in the beautiful data in hopes of providing a better picture of the industry’s nuts and bolts. For now, check out this chart of Detroit’s market share swan dive since the early 90s. One of these things is not like the other…
Speaking to Bloomberg yesterday, GM Sales Boss Susan Docherty called December’s sales results “very encouraging.” Her argument: heavy fleet sales in December 2008 explain why December 09 results look worse by comparison. But spinning sales results as the product of conscious fleet percentage reductions is just one longstanding GM tradition that Docherty indulged in: talking points touting falling incentives and improved inventory weren’t far behind. None of which is necessarily indicative of a satisfactory performance. In fact, if you dissect the spin, it’s clear that what lies beneath is not nearly as attractive as the PR would have you believe.
Here are some full year 2009 new car sales data as they have become available. Along with the source. Caution: Data as reliable as the source.
U.S.A.: down 21.2 percent – 10.4 million units
China: up 45 percent – 13.6 million units
Japan: down 9.3 percent – 4.6 million units
Australia: down 7.4 per cent– 937,328 units
Canada: down 10.7 percent – 1.46 million units i
India: up 18.7 percent– 1.43 million units
Brazil: up 11.35 percent – 3.14 million units
Turkey: up 12.77 percent – 557,126 units
Taiwan: up 28.3 percent – 294,423 units
Philippines: up 6.4 percent – 132,444 units
Russia: down 49 percent – 1,465,917 units
Austria: up 8.8 percent – 319,403 units
Belgium: down 11.1 percent – 476,194 units
Denmark: down 25.3 percent – 112,271 units
Finland: down 35.2 percent – 90,574 units
France: up 10.7 percent – 2,268,671 units
Germany: up 23.2 percent – 3,807,175 units
Greece: down 17.5 percent – 220,548 units
Ireland: down 62.1 percent – 57,460 units
Italy: down 0.2 percent – 2,158,010 units
Luxembourg: down 9.7 percent – 47,265 units
Netherlands: down 22.5 percent – 387,679 units
Portugal: down 24.6 percent -160,996 units
Spain: down 17.9 percent – 952,772 units
Sweden: down 16.0 percent – 213,408 units
United Kingdom: down 6.4 percent – 1,994,999 units
Iceland: down 77.6 percent – 2,020 units
Norway: down 10.8 percent – 98,675 units
Switzerland: down 8.2 percent – 264,798 units
Bulgaria: down 49.3 percent – 22,869 units
Czech Republic: up 12.5 percent – 161,659 units
Estonia: down 66.2 percent – 8,234 units
Hungary: down 50.4 percent – 78,590 units
Latvia: down 80.5 percent – 3,745 units
Lithuania: down 67.4 percent – 7,003 units
Poland: up 0.1 percent – 320,119 units
Romania: down 59.4 percent – 115,979 units
Slovakia: up 6.7 percent – 74,717 units
Slovenia: down 18.7 percent – 55,712 units
European Union (EU15): up 0.9 percent – 13,267,425 units
EFTA: down 10.5 percent – 365,493 units
EU15+EFTA: up 0.5 percent – 13,632,918 units
EU (New Members): down 26.6 percent – 848,627 units
European Union: down 1.3 percent – 14,116,052 units
Total Europe (EU+EFTA): down 1.6 percent – 14,481,545 units
2009 sales of light vehicles (cars and light trucks) in the United States came in at the bottom end of the estimates. Americans bought only 10.4m units, the lowest level in 27 years, Reuters reports.
America actually lost some 4 million cars. The United States scrapped 14m autos while buying only slightly over 10m last year. Cars on the road dropped to 246m from a record high of 250m in 2008, says a report to be released on Wednesday by the Earth Policy Institute (EPI), cited by Reuters.
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With all precincts reporting, Subaru officially takes second place in the 2009 annual sales increase sweepstakes, with a 15 percent annual increase. That achievement was bested only by Jaguar Land Rover, which finished the year up 65 percent with 38,261 units sold. Only Hyundai improved its volume more than Subaru last year, up 56,852 compared to Subies 28,953 increase. Still, Subaru was clearly an up-and-comer this year, shrugging off industrywide declines for one of the best all-round sales performances since the beginning of the so-called Carmageddon. And the momentum seems to be going strong, as Subaru closed the year with a 33 percent increase in December and 23,074 units sold. And to think it all started with the 360, a car that made the VW Beetle look, sound and perform like a freaking Bentley.
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If nothing else, 2009 was the year that Americans got over its disdain for Korean brands. Hyundai’s December sales were up 40 percent over 2008 capping an 8 percent annual increase, and Kia’s sales were up 43.7 percent, ending the year up 9.8 percent. Total Hyundai volume last year hit 435,064 units, while Kia crested 300,063 units. December details after the jump.
Toyota sales were up 32%, using raw (not DSR) numbers in December. For the year, sales were down 20%, typical for most market-performing brands. Toyota Division recorded year-end sales of 1,554,174 vehicles, down 20.6 percent from the prior year. Lexus reported sales of 215,975 units in 2009, down 17 percent from 2008. Scion Division reported sales of 57,961 units for the year (which is about a third of what they were selling a few years back). here’s all the details and full numbers from Toyota: Read More >
Honda’s results are following the pattern for the major Japanese makers: a decent rise in December (up 16%), capping a market-mirroring decline of 20% for the year. The Honda brand did much better (up 19%) than Acura (down 8%) for the month. And Acura also did worse for the year (down 27%) than the Honda brand (-19%). The topthree bestselling Honda models for 2009 were the Accord, 290,056; Civic, 259,722; and CRV, 191,214. Here’s Honda’s take:
Accord monthly sales increased 17.3 percent for December to 28,238. Monthly Civic sales increased by 19.8 percent to 22,319. The CRV, the country’s bestselling SUV in 2008 and 2009, increased sales by 24.5 percent to 18,686 for a new December sales record. Additional models with monthly sales gains included the Pilot, up 26.6 percent to 9,184, and the Odyssey, up 19.8 percent to 8,966.
“The good news is that the market appears to be stabilizing and we have more reasons for optimism in 2010,” said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda. “There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel; let’s hope it’s not another train coming, but rather, brighter days ahead.”
And here’s the full details for you number junkies: Read More >
GM’s December sales release shows a scenario that is reflected across the industry: hefty sales declines on the year with some evening out in December. GM’s sales fell six percent last month, the result of a 54 percent decline in “non-core” brands and a 2.2 percent increase in core brand sales. Still, considering December 08 sales were down nearly by half compared to 2007, it’s clear that GM still has some climbing to do to return to something resembling normalcy. Of the four core brands, the three smaller saw modest gains, with Buick climbing 37 percent, Cadillac gaining 11.4 percent and GMC improving 4.8 percent. But those gains were offset by a 1.5 percent decline in Chevy sales. For the year, Buick dropped 25.4 percent to 102,306 units, Cadillac fell 32.3 percent to 109,092 units, GMC fell 31.1 percent to 259,779 and Chevrolet dropped 25 percent to 1,344,629 units. [Complete GM sales data in XLS (Excel) form available for download here]
Some car makers make it easy; posting their sales details in a copy-friendly format instead of pdf. So the full details of Nissan’s not so bad December (up 18%) and not so great year (down 19%) are here for your perusal after the jump. First, the highlights:
- Nissan Division posted sales of 64,296 units in December compared with 53,829 units sold in December 2008, a 19.4 percent increase.
- Nissan Versa sales in December set a record for the month at 6,809 units, a 32.5 percent increase over December 2008 sales.
- Other Nissan models with double-digit, year-over-year sales increases in December were Maxima (59.5 percent), Z (63 percent), Frontier (113.1 percent), Xterra (14.9 percent), Pathfinder (49.2 percent) and Armada (75.8 percent).
- For calendar year 2009, Rogue set a record of 77,222 sales, a 7.2 percent increase over 2008, and sales of Maxima and Z saw increases of 13.3 percent and 26.9 percent, respectively, compared with calendar year 2008 sales.
Infiniti highlights and the full reveal follow: Read More >
What a year it’s been for Chrysler [sales release here]. With a bankruptcy and bailout on top of a aged and unloved product lineup, it’s almost a miracle the Pentastar boyz sold anything in 2009. Overall sales were down 36 percent over 2008, which saw sales 30 percent lower than 2007. But never fear Mopar fans, Chrysler swears that this downward momentum is a thing of the past, and that 2010 will see Chrysler’s first annual sales growth in years. But the question that comes to mind looking over these latest results is how? After all, only two Chrysler Group models actually sold better in 2009 than 2008. Can you guess which?
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Ford wraps up a difficult year on a high note: sales were up 33% in December compared to a year ago. And although year-end totals were down 15.4% from ’08, that still outpaced the market to deliver Ford’s first annual market share increase since 1995. Ford estimates its 2009 market share to come in at 15%, up one percentage point from 2008. Details: Read More >
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