Chart Of The Day: Brands That Are "Losing" 2011

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

The auto sales game has only one rule: sell more cars this year than you did last year. By that measure, these seven brands are “losing” 2011 as we head into the final two months of the year. Of course 2011’s king of bellyflopping brands was Mercury, which went from 78,656 units in the first 10 months of 2010 to 248 in the same period this year. But because it was mercifully euthanized by Ford (not to mention the fact that its 99.7% decline ruined the rest of the graph), Ford’s erstwhile “entry luxury” brand has been left off.

And what we’re left with is a sight to behold… the once-dominant Honda and Toyota (and even their luxury brands) laid low by floods, tsunamis, congressional hearings and a few poorly-received products. Even Subaru, a brand that grew 15 and 16 percent in 2009 and 2010 respectively seems in danger of not growing its volume this year… for less easily-explained (or is that superficially-explained?) reasons. Meanwhile, if Jaguar is falling behind with its freshest lineup in… well, you get the point. With the market up 10% compared to where it was in the first ten months of 2010, nobody wants to be losing volume right now…


Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Edriveautos Edriveautos on Nov 03, 2011

    After reviewed this complete comparative report for automotive for sale companies list from above chart is really diminished for me .. I really thankful to owner of this blog who providing me this option. Thanks a lot !

  • Tstag Tstag on Nov 03, 2011

    Jag won't be too disturbed. Their sales increases in the far east are accelerating at a pace which makes the us less relevant. Sales at home have also recovered because they are no longer making cars for Americans but for their core Market. Meanwhile Land rover is growing so fast that Jag has plent of time to develop all those new models we are hearing about to grow Market share. Jags Suv will also help sort us sales out a bit.

  • Bud777 Bud777 on Nov 03, 2011

    I sort of expected SAAB to be here somewhere

    • See 1 previous
    • Eldard Eldard on Nov 03, 2011

      Those are all Asian brands, though. And Saab is not Asian. Not yet, anyway.

  • Gasser Gasser on Nov 03, 2011

    Look at the horror show numbers that Lexus put up. Small surprise. I've owned five of them over the last twenty years. At first the LS400 was a MBZ S class size and V8 at the price of the E class or less. Now its priced like a an S class, but doesn't have the cachet to carry it off here in California. The majority of sales are from the RX and ES, both of which are not exactly flying out the door. The ES is an old design, and worse for Lexus, is seen as an old man's car by the thirty year olds with whom I speak. The RX also skews to an older demographic, and for families lacks the third row. For others, they have nothing to downsize to in the Lexus line. The larger Lexus SUVs have stiff competition from both Audi and BMW. My nephew, forty years of age, looked at the GS and ran to but a new Infiniti M. It's all about the product!!!

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