Cain's Segments: Detroit Utility Vehicles

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

With what will likely turn out to be a brief decline in utility vehicles at the Ford Motor Company, sales of SUVs and crossovers at the Chrysler Group were stronger in November 2013 than they were at Ford and Lincoln.

How’d they do it? The Dodge Durango’s 36% increase – its lowest year-over-year improvement since May – was basically cancelled out by the Dodge Journey’s 22% slide. But at Jeep, where sales had been down 2% through the first ten months of 2013, the new Cherokee’s long-awaited first full month on the market helped to power a 30% brand-wide jump.

It wasn’t all down to the Cherokee, and it’s not as though every Ford utility vehicle posted decreases. (Flex up 29%!) With 9% and 14% improvements from the Grand Cherokee and Wrangler, respectively, Jeep’s two top sellers accounted for 58% of the brand’s November sales. Indeed, compared with the same period one year earlier, sales of every Jeep model except the defunct Liberty increased in November 2013.

The Cherokee’s 10,169 sales created quite a buzz when figures were released on Tuesday, however, as many an observer forgot that Jeep had delayed the model’s showroom debut because of quality issues, thereby enabling a greater stockpile of Cherokees than there normally would be at this stage of a launch. Or perhaps it’s just that desirable: could the Cherokee fly in the face of conventional wisdom and sell in this manner on a routine basis?

It was America’s 11th-best-selling SUV/CUV in November, and in part because of its early success, SUVs and crossovers were responsible for 39% of the Chrysler Group’s volume, up from 37% a year ago.

Five different Detroit brand utility vehicles sold more often than the Cherokee in November, including the two Jeeps already mentioned. The Ford Escape, America’s second-ranked utility vehicle, attracts 40% of Ford/Lincoln SUV buyers. Escape sales rose only slightly in November but are up 13% year-to-date, easily exceeding both the market’s growth and the better-selling Honda CR-V’s rate of ascent.

In the U.S., Ford currently relies on SUVs and crossovers for 29% of its sales, a little less than at this time last year. That’s not because their sales have fallen – utility vehicle sales at FoMoCo are up 9% in 2013. Simply put, sales of Ford MoCo cars are growing at a slightly faster clip than sales of utility vehicles, and the F-Series’ rapid rise shows that Ford really knows how to shake its money maker.

The biggest seller of SUVs in America is General Motors. From 14 nameplates, GM sold 75,999 SUVs and crossovers in November; 855,018 year-to-date. The 16% growth rate (both in November and year-to-date) is virtually twice what the overall auto industry has accomplished this year. Even with the one new Buick Encore introduction excluded, GM utility vehicle sales are up 12% in 2013, as improvement has been seen from every nameplate except the Cadillacs. The SRX continues to be America’s second-best-selling premium brand utility vehicle, although the Acura MDX is surging ever closer and the SRX is some 40,000 sales back of the Lexus RX.

Depending how you define the two terms – SUV and crossover – there are around 90 different nameplates available in the utility vehicle arena going into 2014. They generate 30% of the American auto industry’s volume. And of the 4.3 million SUVs and crossovers sold already this year, 48% come from GM, Ford, and Chrysler, down a percentage point from their market share a year ago.

AutoNovember2013November2012% Change10 mos.201310 mos.2012% ChangeBuick Enclave46874817– 2.7%55,71550,651+ 10.0%Buick Encore2663——29,195——Cadillac Escalade (SWB)1100960+ 14.6%11,12211,244– 1.1%Cadillac Escalade ESV651693– 6.1%71757156+ 0.3%Cadillac SRX48235340– 9.7%50,70251,085– 0.7%Chevrolet Captiva Sport44763672+ 21.9%44,96634,228+ 31.4%Chevrolet Equinox18,39716,821+ 9.4%220,980199,070+ 11.0%Chevrolet Suburban52124705+ 10.8%45,44042,160+ 7.8%Chevrolet Tahoe72725895+ 23.4%74,85660,302+ 24.1%Chevrolet Traverse68895697+ 20.9%88,66578,176+ 13.4%Dodge Durango55814091+ 36.4%55,35137,373+ 48.1%Dodge Journey51556569– 21.5%76,31771,875+ 6.2%Dodge Nitro————3269– 100%Ford Edge876110,142– 13.6%117,031115,535+ 1.3%Ford Escape20,98820,970+ 0.1%271,531240,877+ 12.7%Ford Expedition34922831+ 23.3%34,02534,001+ 0.1%Ford Explorer14,26814,940– 4.5%175,490146,963+ 19.4%Ford Flex21251648+ 28.9%23,57526,052– 9.5%GMC Acadia75663631+ 108%81,87073,101+ 12.0%GMC Terrain68218158– 16.4%91,52786,270+ 6.1%GMC Yukon27772438+ 13.9%24,70523,876+ 3.5%GMC Yukon XL26652535+ 5.1%28,10020,498+ 37.1%Jeep Cherokee10,169——10,748——Jeep Compass35472715+ 30.6%49,45937,104+ 33.3%Jeep Grand Cherokee14,79813,619+ 8.7%157,758137,613+ 14.6%Jeep Liberty—4202– 100%610171,975– 91.5%Jeep Patriot51484174+ 23.3%69,63957,444+ 21.2%Jeep Wrangler11,75310,337+ 13.7%143,474130,124+ 10.3%Lincoln MKT431537– 19.7%54166441– 15.9%Lincoln MKX19462108– 7.7%21,36622,490– 5.0%Lincoln Navigator762675+ 12.9%76717289+ 5.2%—— —————Total 184,923 164,920 + 12.1%2,079,970 1,884,242 + 10.4%
Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

More by Timothy Cain

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 48 comments
  • Acd Acd on Dec 06, 2013

    It would be interesting to see the breakdown between retail and fleet for these. Obviously all of the Captivas went into fleet/rental use but I'm curious how many of the 10,000 Cherokees were fleet/rental. I haven't been to the rental car counter for a few weeks but earlier this month I hadn't seen any yet.

  • Seth1065 Seth1065 on Dec 06, 2013

    there are a bunch at Seattles airport rental counters

  • Carson D At 1:24 AM, the voyage data recorder (VDR) stopped recording the vessel’s system data, but it was able to continue taping audio. At 1:26 AM, the VDR resumed recording vessel system data. Three minutes later, the Dali collided with the bridge. Nothing suspicious at all. Let's go get some booster shots!
  • Darren Mertz Where's the heater control? Where's the Radio control? Where the bloody speedometer?? In a menu I suppose. How safe is that??? Volvo....
  • Lorenzo Are they calling it a K4? That's a mountain in the Himalayas! Stick with names!
  • MaintenanceCosts It's going to have to go downmarket a bit not to step on the Land Cruiser's toes.
  • Lorenzo Since EVs don't come in for oil changes, their owners don't have their tires rotated regularly, something the dealers would have done. That's the biggest reason they need to buy a new set of tires sooner, not that EVs wear out tires appreciably faster.
Next