October 2015 Fact Sheet: The U.S. Auto Sales Numbers You Need To Know That You Didn't Know Already

Surely Volkswagen of America, tarnished by daily revelations related to its September diesel emissions scandal, would report an October sales decrease, right?

No, as we discussed earlier this month, incentives and a booming market helped Volkswagen to an October sales increase — of 74 extra sales.

In October 2015, industry-wide sales jumped 14 percent to more than 1.45 million units with above-average improvements from General Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and Hyundai-Kia.

Further to those results, these are the numbers behind the numbers.

5 x 10K: October marked the fifth occasion in 2015 — the fifth in the last 40 months — in which Ford sold more than 10,000 Mustangs in a single month. October’s total was just the fifth-highest achieved this year so far, but we’ve long since left prime Mustang buying season as the car is traditionally stronger in the spring and early summer. Prior to the Camaro’s return, Ford was selling nearly 14,000 Mustangs per month in 2006. The Blue Oval is averaging 10,632 in 2015.

7,313: October 2015 was not the best-ever month for Subaru USA’s Impreza-based XV Crosstrek — now simply called Crosstrek. That was August, when 8,799 copies were sold, breaking the one-month-old record from July. Subaru did, however, sell 7,313 XV Crosstreks in October 2015, a 36-percent year-over-year improvement. What’s so strange about that? They sold 7,414 XV Crosstreks in September. It’s going to get all kinds of creepy if they sell 7,212 XVs in November.

149 > 86: Remember all the kerfuffle created by BMW’s Ian Robertson when he questioned the future of the sports car market? It’s not much wonder Robertson took note of the crisis — BMW’s once-powerful Z4 is a nearly forgotten entity now. Only 1,495 Z4s were sold in America in the first ten months of 2015. (BMW sold more than 20,000 Z4s in 2003.) You know you’re semi-affordable roadster is approaching new levels of rarity, however, when sales plunge 57 percent to only 86 units in October, not even six-tenths the total achieved by your $136,500 hybrid supercar, the i8.

One-Two: A plant shutdown in Windsor, Ontario was deemed necessary earlier this year to enable next-generation retooling for FCA’s minivans. As a result, for much of 2015, the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan have struggled for much of the year. In October 2015, however, for the first time since October 2014, the two FCA minivans finished one-two in monthly minivan sales results. Together, they owned 51 percent of the minivan market last month.

169: For the first time, the October Mitsubishi sales release distributed to us included sales figures for the Lancer Evolution, a soon-to-depart WRX STI fighter. 169 Lancer Evos were sold last month; 1,959 have been sold so far this year. Mitsubishi had sold only 2,351 Evos at this point last year. Subaru sold more than 3,000 WRXs and STIs in October.

Quartet: Cadillac currently sells four different passenger car nameplates: ATS, CTS, XTS, and ELR. Together, those four cars will likely attract fewer than 70,000 buyers in calendar year 2015. Times, and tastes, have changed. Cadillac sold nearly 85,000 DeVilles in 2002.

Quadruple: Land Rover continues to be an automaker fueled very much in the United States by its most expensive nameplates. But the brand has quickly become more effective at the entry-level end of the lineup. 1,356 Discovery Sports were sold in October, more than four times the monthly average (between 2008 and 2014) achieved by its predecessor, the LR2.

40%: Mazda produced one of the industry’s most significant year-over-year percentage increases in October, a 35-percent jump to 25,451 sales. Subtract the discontinued 2 and 5 from the equation, however, and the gains produced by every other Mazda nameplate resulted in a 40-percent uptick.

34: Toyota reported the first deliveries of its hydrogen-powered sedan in the U.S. in October. 34 Mirais found homes last month, a paltry number which will surely grow in the very near future. The vehicles that sold less often than the Mirai in its first abbreviated month of limited availability were mostly discontinued models: Q40, Paceman, Avenger, Cube, XK, iQ, and TSX, to name a few.

2,565: U.S. sales of the Volvo XC90 climbed in October to the highest level since December 2007. Not only did XC90 sales soar, the Volvo flagship was once again the best-selling Volvo in America.

+139: Combined, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and Maserati sold 1,425 cars in the United States. That’s 139 more sales than the Fiat 500 managed. 500 sales plunged 54 percent in October 2015. At this time last year, the 500 outsold its Italian cousins by more than two-to-one.

4X: October was the fourth consecutive month in which Americans purchased and leased more than 200,000 pickup trucks. Eight out of every ten trucks sold last month were full-size pickups from Chevrolet, GMC, Ford, and Ram.

304%: The Kia K900 remains an extremely rare car, even by the standards of full-size luxury. But K900 volume over the last four months has quadrupled from 352 units between July and October 2014 to 1,424 units in the same period this year. Hyundai reported 774 Equus sales over the last four months.

500 > 500: A Papal bump? Not so much. Not unpredictably, October sales of the Fiat 500L took a 68-percent dive to only 293 units one month after Pope Francis saw the sights from the back of a 500L. The Pope’s visit had nothing to do with the 500L’s drop — 500L sales were in freefall before his visit. Instead, blame the 500X, which achieved its highest sales yet in October. The 500X’s 2,178-unit total was 47-percent higher than the 500L’s best ever monthly U.S. sales performance.

5 Triple Seven: American Honda reported 5,777 Acura TLX sales in October 2015, the highest monthly total yet for the TL and TSX-replacing sedan. Only two premium brand cars, the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, sold more often than the TLX last month. Acura last averaged more than 5,500 monthly TL/TSX sales in 2010 and last sold more than 5,000 TLs and TSXs in a single month in August 2012.

24,725: General Motors sold more Malibus in October 2015 than at any point since June 2012. In June 2012, during the transition from the seventh to the eighth-generation iteration, the Malibu was America’s second-best-selling car. Now, as GM launches the ninth-gen Malibu, a clear-out of leftover eighth-gen Malibus is causing a volume explosion.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.