Ford was the best-selling brand in America over the first half of 2010, outselling second-place Chevrolet by over 70k units. Sadly, we don’t have the fleet sales breakdown for this data, because both Ford and Chevy have been dogged by indicators of heavy fleet-sales reliance all year. And volume means very little if it’s hurting resale and eroding a brand. Speaking of brand erosion, did you know that the zombie brand Saturn sold better (6,480 units) since January than Jaguar or Saab? With Hyundai-Kia headed for a combined million-sales year, there’s a new pack forming behind the Korean brands, composed of Subaru, VW and Mazda. Neither true mass-market brands nor premium players, these three brands will be interesting to watch over the next several years.

Mid-to-large unibody crossovers are a large segment covering a wide variety of prices and capabilities, but the competition is tight as can be. Ford’s Edge joins its Escape sibling in bringing the second 2010 YTD crossover sales award back to Dearborn… but only barely. And not if you count the Enclave and Acadia to GM’s Traverse numbers (Lincoln MKX sold only 10,289 YTD, MKT moved 3906, keeping them both off this chart). Once again, we have more proof that the Ford brand is plenty strong, but that Lincoln is still badly enough wounded to keep Ford from hanging with The General. Meanwhile, Hyundai, Kia and Subaru are charging into this segment with guns blazing, and the Toyota Highlander seems to be taking much of the hit from the new competition.

Speaking of German car companies doing exceptionally well despite a tanking German car market, there is of course Volkswagen.

The Volkswagen group sold more than 3.5m units worldwide in the first six months of 2010, besting the pretty darn good numbers of the same period in 2009 by about 15 percent, Martin Winterkorn said to Reuters. He predicts (and that’s an easy call based on the half year results) that the Volkswagen group will see record car sales in 2010. What’s driving the new Wirtschaftswunder? The weak Euro, of course. And the strong position of Volkswagen in boom markets such as China.

Nevertheless, VW doesn’t want to rely on the vagaries of the foreign exchange. (Read More…)

Ford’s Escape wasn’t the best-selling compact crossover in June, but it only needed to cruise to an easy victory as the best selling compact crossover in the first half of 2010. Honda and Toyota’s offerings are still over 10k units behind the mighty Escape on the half, with the Equinox claiming fourth place, and Rogue and Forester neck-and-neck for fifth.

The BBC reports that new car registrations in the UK have inexplicably risen 10.8 percent in June 2010 compared with this time, last year. What makes this “inexplicable” is the fact that sales have risen, despite the fact that the “cash for clunkers” scheme had ended on March the 31st, 2010. “The new car market continued to perform above expectations in June,” said the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) chief executive Paul Everitt said, “The results indicate improved business confidence and a strengthening economic recovery.” However, a quick look at the SMMT report reveals a potential answer. The article shows that fleet sales grew 25.3 percent. Those pesky fleet sales! Let’s take a quick look at some of the brands and their performance, shall we…? (Read More…)

Now we know why Daimler’s Zetsche said that “2010 could become the best year in the history of the automobile.” Daimler is celebrating record numbers. Never in recorded history had Mercedes-Benz sold more cars in a June than in the last June, says DPA (via Ad Hoc News.) Due to high demand in China and the U.S., Daimler sold 122,900 passenger vehicles this June, that’s 10.6 percent more than in June 2009. (Read More…)

In June 2010, new car sales in Germany were down 28.7 percent from June 2009, reports the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt, the German government agency that is responsible for all things rolling on Germany’s roads. That may sound like a horrible number, but the graph tells a different story. June 2009 was the absolute peak of the Abwrackprämien-orgy (red line), and Germany seems to slowly get back to 2008 levels (blue line.) Once we are through the seasonally low July/August months, sales may actually exceed 2008 levels. It won’t be until next year before Germany will report real growth. (Read More…)

Last week, we reported some totally discombobulated June sales numbers from China. People’s Daily had reported that “China’s auto sales slumped by 17.4 percent in June from May, to less than 10 million vehicles.” Hooooo-kay. If you say so.

Now, state-run news agency Xinhua reports numbers that make a bit more sense. Still not the official CAAM data, but close enough. (Read More…)

These six sedans are the fleshy part of the American car market. Big-name D-segment sedans sell like crazy, and pretty much made Honda and Toyota what they are today. Their dominance of this segment, often called “Camccord” after their two best-sellers, remains unchecked as each has spent three months on top of the chart. But there’s danger down below. Hyundai’s Sonata has been making steady progress all year (June excepted), and the Malibu has enjoyed more modest, but equally steady growth. Altima all but matched Camry in February, and gave Accord a scare in March. There’s still a tight pack of four nipping at the heels of the big dogs. Time to start coming up with a new nickname for the D-Segment?

Just yesterday, I noted in my write-up on Mazda’s June sales performance that

with a Nagare-saddled Mazda5 replacement waiting in the wings, Mazda isn’t even well positioned to defend the segment it helped define in the US market, just as GM finally starts taking it seriously

Well, today Mazda announced to Automotive News [sub] that it would be targeting 30k annual sales of the Mazda5’s “Nagare-saddled” replacement. Last year’s 18,488 units was the second-best sales year on record for the 5, as sales fell from 2008’s all-time high of 22,021. In short, Mazda’s compact CUV has always been at least 8k units away from its new Mazda5 sales goal. On the other hand, Mazda never properly marketed the 5, and both GM and Ford are moving into the segment with the GMC Granite and Ford C-Max. Will Detroit’s move into this otherwise-ignored segment (currently contested by only the 5 and the Kia Rondo) bring buyers in, or force already-marginalized players like Mazda out? The fate of the 5 seems to hang on the answer to that one question.

“2010 could become the best year in the history of the automobile,” said Daimler’s Zetsche today, while Automobilwoche [sub] was furiously scribbling notes. “The best times of the car are in front of us.” Times are especially well for manufacturers for luxury cars. Had Dr. Z been drinking? Not necessarily. (Read More…)

And again, it’s time for a TTAC tradition. We ask the patent-pending TTAC market oracle: What were last month’s new car sales in China? TTAC was forced to develop this oracle, because China is always a bit late in reporting official numbers (it’s a big country.) So we devised our patent-pending China prediction system, call it the I-Ching of the automotive business: Take GM China, deduct a few points, and like a miracle, you have the performance of the Chinese market. Works all the time. Usually. Sometimes, it doesn’t.

Our oracle says that the Chinese market will come in at a growth in the low 20 percentile range.  Why? (Read More…)

In Brazil sales numbers are also coming in. See tables below.  The story is the opposite of last month. This time around: month to month, good; year to year, bad. Flip flop! (Read More…)

In the first six months of 2009, Mazda sold over 7,000 more vehicles than did Subaru. This year, Subaru’s six month volume is over 10k units higher than Mazda’s. Meanwhile, in a scenario that does not bode well for the forthcoming Mazda2-Fiesta showdown, Ford’s Escape outsold its Mazda Tribute cousin 15 times over. In 2002, for comparison, that ratio was closer to three Escapes for every Tribute sold (145,471 to 44,989). And with a Nagare-saddled Mazda5 replacement waiting in the wings, Mazda isn’t even well positioned to defend the segment it helped define in the US market, just as GM finally starts taking it seriously. Mazda has little room for failure… and plenty of opportunity. There will have to be many more months like this one.

Like several other full-line manufacturers, Nissan’s car sales lagged in June (up 2.7 percent), as the brand’s nearly 11 percent growth was driven primarily by increases in truck sales. On the other hand, few of its vehicles actually lost sales. The Cube dropped 11 percent to 1,896 units, and the Altima fell 2.6 percent, as did Nissan’s sportscars, the 370Z (-3.5%, 892 units) and GTR (-44%, 84 units). Every truck and Infiniti vehicle was up, though, leaving Nissan with a solid, if generally weak sales month. Full numbers after the jump.

(Read More…)