Whose Cars Are The Freshest?
Cars are like fruits and vegetables: They sell better fresh. Of course, even the freshest dud remains a dud. But all else being equal, those with a fresher line-up outsell those with aged product. TrueCar has put together an interesting table: What are the proportions of model year 2011 (yes, they are still on the lots), 2012, and 2013 in a brand’s sales?
Freshness is tops
BrandMY 2011MY 2012MY 2013Hyundai0.00%58.30%41.70%Lexus1.00%68.20%30.80%Acura0.60%69.00%30.40%Mazda0.70%74.30%25.00%BMW2.20%73.30%24.60%Kia0.20%76.50%23.20%Infiniti1.10%76.80%22.10%Audi0.20%80.50%19.30%Lincoln4.90%77.60%17.50%Volvo25.00%58.30%16.70%Ford1.20%84.10%14.60%Overall1.20%92.10%6.70%Scion0.00%94.10%5.90%Porsche0.70%94.30%5.10%Subaru0.10%96.70%3.20%Volkswagen0.50%97.40%2.10%Chevrolet1.70%96.70%1.70%Cadillac2.10%96.70%1.20%Mercedes-Benz1.00%97.80%1.20%Toyota1.10%98.80%0.10%Nissan1.50%98.40%0.10%GMC1.30%98.60%0.10%FIAT0.00%100.00%0.00%Honda0.30%99.70%0.00%MINI0.70%99.30%0.00%Jeep0.70%99.30%0.00%Suzuki0.80%99.20%0.00%Ram1.20%98.80%0.00%Buick1.60%98.40%0.00%Dodge2.00%98.00%0.00%Chrysler2.80%97.30%0.00%Jaguar3.10%96.90%0.00%Land Rover3.20%96.80%0.00%Mitsubishi5.00%95.00%0.00%It is quite interesting to see that import brands and luxury brands have already a strong amount of sales with model-year 2013 sales in June.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Well I'll give Bertel credit, he's all about equal opportunity when it comes to upsetting the B&B. I'm going back to eating popcorn.
There's a Honda dealer 5 minutes outside of Atlanta selling a new '11 Civic EX coupe for $19K (http://bit.ly/Ns4lqi) . Kinda perplexing in a city where Passports seem to outnumber Rodeos 2:1. Meanwhile, the same dealer has a CPO '10 with >25K on the clock selling for $18.5K (http://bit.ly/MBGCAA0) . Da fuq?
I understand occasionally when an major redesign comes out, they introduce it early in the year. But when 41% of the sales of a brand are next years model in June, it leaves me scratching my head a bit on the relevancy of this statistic.
Personally I go by the date of manufacture on the door panel as my 'model year'.