Chart Of The Day: Mid/Large CUV Sales In July And Year To Date

Sales of all car-based crossovers continue to climb, far outstripping demand for body-on-frame utes as well as pickup trucks. But strangely enough, a lot of the growth and volume among crossovers is in the compact-CUV segmen t, where the top-selling model last month beat July’s mid/full-CUV winner by some 10,000 units. This suggests that The Great American Downsizing, as we’ve called it, isn’t as simple as former SUV owners replacing their BOF beast with one of these comparable mid/full-CUVs. Still, this is an important segment because although the stakes aren’t wildly high, the competition is fierce. GM won by a whisker last month, but Ford’s got a strong one-two punch as well with its Explorer/Edge combo. Meanwhile, Honda’s Crosstour and Ford’s Flex have bombed all the way off our monthly volume chart. Hit the jump to find out their Year-To-Date numbers, and to find out who the somewhat surprising YTD volume winner is.

Is this a parable for the future of the US car market? All three Detroit automakers get at least one model past Honda and Toyota… only to be beat back by Kia’s red-hot Sorento. Though many in the pro-Detroit contingent have been crowing over Honda and Toyota’s recent misfortunes, it’s becoming clear that Kia and Hyundai are becoming equally important competitors. As, of course, is Nissan… which simply happens to no longer have a strong competitor in this segment, as the Murano fades away. In any case, only 25k units separate the top eight nameplates here, so expect more back-and-forth as the year goes on… just don’t expect this segment’s generous allotment of bonafide duds, including the Flex, Crosstour, and Venza, to go anywhere.