|
|
By the Numbers
May 10, 2010 by Jeremy Sally
 
With the Stanley Cup playoffs on full swing in April, Canadians placed their bets, threw on their jersey’s, and grew horribly patchy facial hair. However, the NHL isn’t the only game in town around here, with automakers fighting it out for the top position on the scoreboard.
There were some April showers for a couple manufacturers like GM and Toyota, but for others, it was all flowers. Canadians purchased 149,658 vehicles last month, representing a 4% increase over the same month in 2009.
The rest of the season looks good for the manufacturers; with the Loonie at parity, and the economy keeping its stick on the ice, consumers are being bullish. The gloves are already coming off, with automakers unveiling their new incentive programs for what is projected to be a couple very busy months ahead.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: By the Numbers
May 6, 2010 by Justin Loyear
Overall, April was a pretty good month for the rest of the automotive pack in America. Mitsubuishi managed to sell a few more cars this month than April, 2009. Mazda, Mercedes, and Subaru all continue to sell at impressive levels with double digit sales increases between 24% and 48%. Here is a highlight reel of all the happenings for the small makes, German luxury, and some interesting observations about the irrelevant.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: By the Numbers
May 5, 2010 by Colin Bird
April was another good month for the ‘Movers and Shakers’ of the auto industry. While April sales were technically down 84,074 units from March, the industry still managed to increase sales by 19.8% from April, 2009.
Total sales equaled 982,131 vehicles. According to Edmunds, the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR) for the industry now stands at 11.2 million vehicles. That’s down from 11.8 million in March, but still much better than the 10.36 million tracked SAAR in February.
According to J.D. Power and Associates, 79.7% of vehicles sold in April were retail sales compared to 20.2% fleet sales. Fleet mix increased slightly for March, by a little over 1% of total sales. Industry mix favored car sales again in April: 51.5% car vs. 48.5% light-truck. The biggest vehicle segments for the month were midsized cars (254,214), crossovers (193,506), compact cars (167,040) and pickup trucks (129,603).
April’s sales performance has to do with the continuation of aggressive incentive spending. Besides Toyota’s new all time high for incentive spending, there was also a big jump made by Honda. Industry average incentive spending was estimated at about $2,800 per vehicle in April, identical to March’s high numbers but down -4.4% from this time last year, according to Truecar. Truecar says car companies spent ~$2.8 billion on incentives in April.
April sales ultimately proved to be lower than what many automotive analysts were expecting. Bloomberg estimated an 11.4 million SAAR average for April only two weeks ago, that was based off the robust sales of the first 20 days of April. Al Castignetti, VP of sales at Nissan USA, says “the final 10 days of the month were a bit slower than we experienced earlier on.”
While all important indicators point to further improvement in the auto industry, car manufactures are by no means out of the woods. With unemployment remaining at a very high 9.7% and “real” discretionary retail spending still on the decline, a difficult and long recovery for the auto industry is still expected.
Most automakers and automotive analysts kept their predicted end of the year SAAR at 11.5-12 million vehicles for 2010.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: By the Numbers
May 4, 2010 by Colin Bird
April’s top 20 vehicles had a few surprises, namely Chevrolet and Chrysler have increased their presence on the list at the expense of Toyota and Nissan.
While Toyota reclaimed many positions on the top 20 chart in March, the Toyota Highlander has again fallen off the list.
Toyota’s most important nameplate, the Camry, fell astonishingly from 2nd to 5th place in April. At 27,914 units, the Camry lost the family sedan crown to the Honda Accord for the month. The Toyota Corolla was Toyota’s best seller and the bestselling compact car in the US.
Ford’s F-Series remained the number one selling car in America by a very healthy margin – more than 10,000 vehicles. By supplanting the Nissan Altima, the Ford Fusion is now the third best selling midsize sedan. The Ford Focus is the third bestselling compact vehicle too. The Ford Escape had a fantastic month; with 19,146 vehicles sold, it was enough to catapult the Escape back on to the top 10. The Ford Escape is now the bestselling compact crossover, usurping the Honda CR-V, and is Ford’s second bestselling nameplate for April.
The Honda Accord was only ~300 units shy of being the second bestselling vehicle. Honda’s Civic jumped 3 positions, while the Honda CR-V jumped 6. Year-to-date sales put the Accord behind the Camry by only ~1,500 units.
While Chrysler’s Dodge Charger and Dodge Caravan are still missing from the top 20, they were here in March, Chrysler’s Town & Country did join the Dodge Ram. That means Chrysler’s presence on the top 20 has increased by a fold. The Ram is still fairing pretty poorly overall this year, sales were down -23.7% in April and have seen negative sales output for most of the year. Total Ram sales are down -19.9% for the year.
GM’s mainstream brand Chevrolet increased from four to five positions on the top 20. Chevrolet is now the largest automaker present on the top 20, taking away this honor from Toyota. The Chevy Cobalt, which fell off the list completely in March, has restored its 15th place rank. The very popular Equinox fell 2 positions to 20th place, though Equinox sales were essentially even with March’s. The Malibu increased by two position slots, while the Impala bumped up 3 spots. The Silverado supplanted the Camry to become the second bestselling vehicle again.
Nissan Altima fell from 7th to 14th place. The Versa fell off the top 20 completely, the first time a subcompact wasn’t present on the list since at least January.
Hyundai’s Sonata clocked around ~18,000 sales for the month, which was about the same as last month. That performance made the Sonata the 4th bestselling midsized sedan, up from 5th in March.
The nameplate mixture based off geographic region has shifted dramatically towards the domestics for April. Domestics now make up 55% of the top 20 chart, up from 45% in March. Japanese went from a 50% to 40% share. Korean’s makes up the other 5%.
| Vehicle |
April 2010 |
% Chg from April ‘09 |
YTD 2010 |
| Ford F-Series |
40,946 |
+ 42.4% |
143,985 |
| Chevrolet Silverado |
29,618 |
+12.0% |
102,098 |
| Honda Accord |
29,311 |
+0.3% |
94,890 |
| Toyota Corolla / Matrix |
27,932 |
+50.7% |
91,672 |
| Toyota Camry / Solara |
27,914 |
+10.2% |
96,509 |
| Honda Civic |
25,042 |
-4.6% |
78,669 |
| Ford Escape |
19,146 |
+40.8% |
64,237 |
| Ford Fusion |
18,971 |
+3.5% |
70,382 |
| Hyundai Sonata |
18,536 |
+56.9% |
50,283 |
| Honda CR-V |
16,661 |
+36.8% |
53,009 |
| Chevrolet Malibu |
16,536 |
+12.8% |
65,875 |
| Chevrolet Impala |
16,144 |
-7.9% |
54,417 |
| Toyota RAV4 |
14,851 |
+33.5% |
55,325 |
| Nissan Altima |
14,762 |
+22.9% |
74,245 |
| Ford Focus |
14,107 |
+20.7% |
57,704 |
| Chevrolet Cobalt |
13,701 |
+28.9% |
51,080 |
| Dodge Ram |
13,665 |
-23.7% |
51,707 |
| Chrysler Town & Country |
13,367 |
+79.6% |
37,947 |
| Toyota Prius |
12,555 |
+49.7% |
40,793 |
| Chevrolet Equinox |
11,987 |
+190.4% |
42,366 |
Data Source: www.motorintelligence.com via The Wall Street Journal
Filed under: By the Numbers
April 21, 2010 by Mirko Reinhardt
Since this is the first AutoBird German Top 20, I’ll take a bit more time to talk about some of the cars on this list. The funny thing is that there’s so little overlap with the US market figures. The only nameplate that appears in both markets is the Ford Focus, and even that is not the same car. There are no Asian brands in the top 20. (21 would have been a Hyundai though). So let’s get it started:
- Some people are car enthusiasts. They like to talk about cars, read about them on blogs and in magazines and look at the shapes and the technical specs. Generally, enthusiasts spend a disproportionate amount of their time thinking about cars. It’s completely understandable car buying is hell for enthusiasts. All those choices, but only a finite amount of money. Not all people are like enthusiasts. Some just want a car. The default choice for people in North America, for reasons I can’t understand, is the Toyota Camry, but in Germany the generic car is the Volkswagen Golf. It’s grouped with the Jetta here, but of the 29,169 cars sold, I wouldn’t expect more than three to be sedans. The key to Wolfsburg’s success here is making the right Golf for everybody: The 80hp stripper for non-enthusiasts, the 61 mpg Bluemotion for tree-huggers, the AWD, 272hp Golf R for people who like to go fast and literally many more versions of the Golf everywhere in between. What’s not available is the 2.5L, 5-cylinder engine they put in Golfs for North America – I think you can guess why.
- Cars have been growing a lot since the original Golf. So has the Volkswagen Polo, which is now roughly the size of the third generation Golf. Since the Polo has a similar conservative, refined persona as the Golf, people like it a lot – 9,117 Polos were picked up by Germans in March.
- Wolfsburg seems to be on a roll here: the third car on the podium (and the best-selling midsizer) is the Passat. Like any other Volkswagen model, the engine lineup contains a gas or diesel option for every taste, but there’s also something a little bit more exotic: The Passat EcoFuel’s 1.4L turbo- and supercharged engine runs on compressed natural gas, which is a widely available and cheaply taxed fuel here. Such versatility earns the Passat 7,808 sales, which is more than the Mondeo and Insignia, it’s most important rivals, combined. One option Germans don’t seem to care about: The sedan.
- Rüsselsheim is probably fuming right now: The new Opel Astra failed to make it on the podium. Just coming 6 sales short of passing the Passat, 7,803 sales still is more than respectable, making the handsome but technologically unimpressive hatchback #2 in it’s segment. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: By the Numbers, Industry News
April 15, 2010 by Mirko Reinhardt
About a year ago, a wise man said: “The nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.” Since he is quite popular with the Germans, they seem to have done what they can to keep car sales up. After the cash-for-clunkers craze of 2009, the German market is now mostly saturated with entry-level cars. One would expect significantly lower numbers than “normal” for March 2010, but we Germans love our cars and run to the dealers, wallets ready. In March, however, Germans bought 294,375 vehicles, or 26.6% less than in March 2009.
Remember that Abwrackprämie (cash-for-clunkers) mostly spurred sales of small, cheap cars, and without it sales of city cars are down 45.4%, subcompacts are down 42.8% and mid-size down 21.1%. The premium midsize segment (5-series, A6, E-Class) is up 6.5%, and luxury car sales gained 1.1%.
Surprisingly, sports cars accelerated their sales by 16.3%, and RVs moved in 14.7% higher numbers as well, so look out for lots of Porsches overtaking lots of Volkswagen Californias if you plan a trip to Germany any time soon.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: By the Numbers, Industry News
April 12, 2010 by Nicholas Fay
As one would expect; as the economy improves, sales of non-durable goods rise. As a status symbol, nothing, save a home, is more prominent than the car. When people begin to obtain jobs again and credit becomes more easily available, consumers will once again migrate to purchasing new cars. During this interim period where the economy is working its way back to full strength, incentives are being made to clear excess inventory. Due to these incentives, the thought of purchasing a new car are luring consumers on to lots once again. Overall, this March was better than the previous one with over half of the manufacturers listed below exceeding 1.75% market share.
As the data below shows, the German brands either increased their market share drastically over last year or maintained a high level of market share. BMW was the bellwether of the recession, keeping a 2% market share from the year prior. Volkswagen had the largest increase of any brand examined below with an increase of over 40% since the same time last year. Audi sold far more vehicles this March compared to last, however its market share remained comparatively small. Finally, Mercedes-Benz increased their overall market share by more than a quarter, but they were unable to break the 2% barrier overall. The only brand which did not fit the mold was Porsche. However, as a high-end manufacturer of sports cars their production numbers aren’t near the others. An important note is their increase of 9% compared to last March, suggesting the appetite for luxury vehicles is returning.
The remaining manufacturers saw marginal gains or great losses compared to the previous March. Mazda saw a 5.5% year-over-year increase to retain an above 2% overall market share. Mitsubishi eked out of March with 0.5% of the market; however they increased sales over 17% from the year before. Subaru was the largest non-German producer of vehicles, both in terms of market share and year-to-year change. Overall, Subaru sold almost 2.25% of all vehicles purchased in March, an increase of 46% over last year. The one outlier in all of March was Suzuki; they managed to sell less than 0.25% of all cars bought in March as well as seeing their year-over-year month sales drop by 72%.
Volkswagen
- Best selling model was the Jetta Sedan, closely followed by the Jetta SportWagen.
- Out of all Jetta SportWagens, 85% of those sold were diesels.
- American’s taste for hot hatches increased massively over the previous March, the GTI’s sales growing by 278%
Mazda
- Surprisingly, CUVs were the best selling models in Mazda’s lineup with the CX-7 and CX-9 both gaining roughly 65% over the previous year.
- The Mazda3\MazdaSpeed3 did not fare as well as the Golf\GTI with an increase in sales of only 16% compared to last year.
Suzuki
- Suzuki performed abysmally in March, there is literally nothing else to report
Mercedes-Benz
- The E-Class sedan saw the largest gains among all Mercedes-Benz products with an increase of 154.9% over last March.
- Understandably, sports cars did not fare well with the CLK, SLK and SL all dropping by at least 25%.
BMW
- The perennial breadwinner for BMW, the 3-Series, saw a marginal increase in sales by 11% suggesting stronger growth in the future.
- As the new 5-Series was just introduced, greater incentives on current generation models are expected to increase.
Audi
- Audi managed to do what no other major German manufacturer (save Porsche) could do, they sold their A5 coupe very well with an increase of 154.9% compared to last March
- The hatchback offering from Audi, the A3, managed a 100% increase over March of the previous year suggesting that Americans may learn to love premium hatches as they should
Porsche
- The largest gains made by Porsche were in the Boxster\Cayman models at 57%\23% respectively, showing that well off Americans are looking forward to summer
- Appropriately, the Cayenne SUV’s sales decreased by as much as the Boxster’s increased, a healthy 57% of buyers decided that the Cayenne wasn’t worth the money (which we all knew).
Mitsubishi
- Lancer sales increased by 47%, making this past March the best for Lancers since August 2009.
Subaru
- The Outback has very strong sales in March, increasing 110% over the previous March.
- With the new Impreza being unveiled at the New York Auto Show, incentives should increase to clear the old inventory.
Filed under: By the Numbers, Industry News
April 9, 2010 by Jeremy Sally
With 2009’s icy economic chill slowly melting away, the “True North” saw things begin to warm up this spring, both in auto sales, and in automotive manufacturing. Economic confidence, brought on by a strong Loonie, and solid economic forecasts were likely causes for Canadians to open their wallets, purchasing a total of 145,285 vehicles in the month of March.
Despite the enticing figures, the industry will likely need another two years before it recovers to pre-recession sales numbers according to DesRosiers. Incentives are also a major factor for these numbers, especially with Toyota’s attractive new rates to entice customers back into dealerships.
The high dollar will also have a major impact in the coming months for the sector, as Canadians will find themselves paying even more for gas, influencing purchasing habits. More importantly, vehicles built in the country for export to the US will become more expensive, as will parts, meaning that the positive manufacturing news in here could be negated in only a short time.
 Ford: Topping the sales charts for this March, the Blue Oval has plowed through the first quarter of the 2010 as Canada’s best selling automaker. Ford’s total share of the Canadian market sits at 15.1%. Total vehicle sales numbered in at 21,996, a 29.2% increase compared to the previous year.
Leading the charge were Ford’s CUV’s, the Edge and Escape, with total sales up by 33.3%. Ford’s truck division has had a good spring, with sales up by 32%. Car sales were also up by 19.4%, helped by the new Taurus, and the popular Fusion.
In addition, Ford’s luxury division, Lincoln’s sales have risen 109.5% compared to last March. Sales of the MKX rose 118.5%; the MKZ following right behind with a 97.4% increase.
Big nameplate winners for this month include Ford Taurus (+230%), Lincoln MKX (+119%), Lincoln MKZ (+97%), Ford F-150 (+52%)
Trucks remain the sales mix king with 78.4%, and the cars occupying the remaining 21.6%.
 Toyota: The runner up in the race for sales leadership, Toyota currently sits at a 13.6% share. Despite a multitude of well publicized recalls, the company sold more vehicles this month than it did a year ago, a total of 19,792, marking a 24.5% increase.
Despite the massive recall, and surrounding publicity, sales of recalled models did very well last month. Toyota’s Matrix rose 70.6% compared to last year, marking the best March that model has seen. The Prius accelerated ahead with a 130.4% gain, and the trend continues with the Camry’s increase of 95.9%.
Lexus’ sales did decrease slightly, by 4.4%. However, the RX450h enjoyed its best March, with sales of 130 units.
Other nameplate winners were the Toyota 4Runner (+247.1%), Toyota Venza (+76.5%) and the Toyota Tacoma (+73.8%).
Advertising emphasizing their large line of Canadian built vehicles, quality, and low financing has been prevalent. In addition, Canadian news coverage of the recall and Toyota’s woes seems less prevalent compared to America’s.
 Chrysler: The Pentastar found itself tied for third place, with a market share of 13.3% after selling 19,470 vehicles this March. This resulted in a 22% increase over last year; in addition, that means that ChryCo has posted four consecutive months of sales gains of over 20%.
An all-time sales record was set by the Dodge Journey, which sold 2,239 units, leading to an increase of two-thirds compared to last year, and solidifying its status as Canada’s top selling CUV. Ram hauled in a 101% gain, thanks in part to the new HD models, with total sales of 4,841.
Chrysler’s minivan offerings continued to dominate their respective market, with 5,774 units sold in the month of March, an increase of 43%. According to Chrysler’s press release, “Better than eight out of every ten Canadian minivan shoppers chose a Chrysler minivan in March.”
The Jeep Wranglers’ sales allowed it to climb 81% over last year, with March’s figures coming in at 1,160.
Two of the top five selling nameplates in Canada belonged to Chrysler: the Dodge Grand Caravan, and the Ram. Likely helping Chrysler’s fortunes are some very attractive financing options, and cash discounts on their 2010 models.
 General Motors: GM was tied with its Auburn Hills competitor for a 13.3% share of the Canadian market, the lowest it has ever been. Compared to last March, GM’s core brand sales were up by 27.3%. However, when including the non-core brands, sales were actually down by 22.9%, making for a less rosy result in early spring.
The General’s focus on advertising its fuel-efficient offerings paid off last month, with Cobalt sales up 45% compared to the previous month. Chevy’s Malibu also enjoyed an increase of 16.5%.
The Canadian built Camaro continues to muscle in on Ford’s turf, posting its sixth consecutive month of being the lead-steed in the race for pony-car supremacy.
On the CUV front, GMC’s Terrain, and the Chevrolet Equinox had a combined rise in sales of 97%. Additionally, the Lambda models, Chevy’s Traverse, GMC’s Acadia, and Buick’s Enclave also had a very good March, with their sales up a combined 56%.
The success of the two CUV’s has led GM to add a third shift to produce them. The automaker is recalling 600 workers to Oshawa, and adding 40 new ones to its plant in Ingersoll, an absolute boon to the Ontario economy which has been battered by the economic slowdown.
The ‘TriShield’ brand had another bit of good news, with the LaCrosse posting its best sales month yet (+36.9%).
Cadillac’s numbers were up over 108% in March, driven by a rejuvenated product line. Sales of the SRX rocketed ahead by 324% compared to last year, with the CTS up by 29%.
 Hyundai/Kia: The Korean companies collectively managed a market share of 10.6%. Hyundai’s record of breaking records for sales gains continued in March, with a 24.9% increase over last year’s numbers. Total sales were 11,012.
Hyundai’s small car offerings helped make up a substantial amount of the sales with the Accent selling 2,520 units (+5.3%), and the Elantra coming in at 2,239 (19.3%).
CUV’s also bulked up the numbers: Hyundai moved 2,438 Santa Fe’s (+32.7%), and 1,330 Tucson’s (+127.7%) over March. Bringing up the rear was the Sonata, with 1,178 sales (+23.4%).
For its part, Kia had a banner month, boasting the best March sales in its history of operation in Canada: a total of 4,437 units. This resulted in 29.6% higher sales compared to March, ‘09.
Kia owed its strong showing to the Forte, which sold 1,138 units. The Soul won 816 converts in March, up 15.3% over last March. The new Sorento debuted this month, making an impression with 751 buyers.
 Honda: Despite clicking in at a hair below 10% share, Honda’s combined sales of 14,389 units were a 15% increase over March ‘09.
Honda’s CRV broke an all-time record in sales, with 3,427 units finding homes. The brand is also optimistic that Canada will once again be Civic Nation, but the figures for that model were not released.
Acura, the luxury arm of Honda, sold 1,824 units, a 51% increase over last year. Leading the sales charge were the RDX and MDX, with both models having their best March sales ever.
Once again, Ontario’s manufacturing sector will be getting a sorely needed boost, with Honda aiming to open a second shift at its Alliston facility, creating 400 new jobs in the 2011 new year.
 Mazda: At the end of the pack was the Zoom-Zoom brand with a 5.6% market share; total sales were 8,152, a 15% increase compared to last March. No doubt the Mazda3 was doing all the smiling, with the popular car occupying the largest portion of those sales.
Filed under: By the Numbers
|
|
