How Sports Are Your Cars? We Have Answers

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Even Mazda, we told you last week, is now selling more crossovers than cars.

One-third of Chevrolet’s U.S. volume is produced by pickup trucks. An SUV now generates more than half of the Bentley brand’s U.S. sales. Half of all Chrysler buyers choose a minivan.

Where are the sports cars?

We don’t expect auto brands to produce the majority of their volume with sports cars. In fact, many auto brands don’t sell any kind of sports car at all. But at TTAC, we’re enthusiasts, even though some of us drive minivans and three-cylinder subcompact hatchbacks and compact sedans. We want sports cars to be part of an automaker’s lineup because there will come a day.

But which auto brands actually produce meaningful volume with sports cars?

To answer this question we ignored “performance versions” of four-door sedans. We excluded coupe variants of sedans for which sales figures either are or are not made available by their respective automakers. And we rejected from contention two-doors such as the Buick Cascada in the interests of our reputation. (Yes, you can argue about the Dodge Challenger’s reputation as a “sports car” and whether it’s essentially just a two-door Charger, but we included it anyhow.)

And then, to reach a conclusion, we also tossed out sales of crossovers, SUVs, vans, and pickup trucks. The real question becomes: which mainstream auto brands produce the greatest percentage of their passenger car sales from sports cars?

Toyota | 1%


Forget Scion, the brand is dead for MY2017. But the Scion FR-S lives on as the Toyota 86.

Through the first eight months of 2016, the FR-S accounted for 0.7 percent of total Toyota/Scion car volume. For every FR-S sold by Scion, Toyota also sells 52 Camrys, 48 Corollas, and 45 RAV4s.

Nissan | 1%


U.S. sales of the Nissan 370Z rose to a five-year high in 2015 but are down 19 percent to 4,292 sales so far this year, a far cry from 36,728 350Zs sold in 2003. That year, the Z alone accounted for 10 percent of Nissan’s U.S. volume.

Now, with SUVs/crossovers bringing in more than one-third of Nissan sales, 370Z volume a fraction of what it was, and the GT-R reporting an expected level of niche volume, only one-half of one percent of Nissan’s total volume is sports car-derived.

Subaru | 3%


True performance in Subaru dealerships is sold in the form of the Impreza-based WRX and STI, sedans which account for one in five Subaru car sales and one out of every 18 total Subaru sales.

But we’re not talking about rally-inspired sedans. The Subaru BRZ, a twin of the Scion FR-S/Toyota 86, is down 20 percent to 3,062 sales this year, representing just 3 percent of Subaru’s 107,203 car sales in 2016’s first eight months.

Mazda | 7%


Mazda truly does imbue all of its vehicles with a sense of Miata. From the Mazda 2, sold as a Scion iA/Toyota Yaris iA sedan in the U.S., to the Mazda CX-9, there’s a sense of relationship in every Mazda to the company’s roadster. Yet the MX-5 Miata is the only sporting Mazda — there aren’t even Mazdaspeed versions of the Miata’s stablemates.

Possibly the most famous Mazda, the MX-5 Miata produces only 7 percent of the brand’s U.S. passenger car volume; only 4 percent of the brand’s total volume.

Fiat | 7%


While only 7 percent of the Fiat brand’s passenger car volume in the first eight months of 2016 were produced by the MX-5 Miata-based 124 Spider, that figure is misleading. The 124 Spider has only become a force for good this summer.

In August, for instance, as sales of the 500 and 500L fell 43 percent to 1,374 units, Fiat sold 460 copies of the 124 Spider, or 25 percent of the brand’s passenger car volume.

Chevrolet | 14%


By way of 47,958 Camaros (down 15 percent, year-over-year) and 19,890 Corvettes (down 17 percent, year-over-year), Chevrolet has generated 67,848 of its 486,342 passenger car sales with sports cars this year.

Combined sales of Chevrolet’s two entry-level models, the Sonic and Spark: 62,716.

Ford | 17%


Ford brand passenger car sales are down 11 percent to 478,777 units this year. The Mustang, America’s leading sports car — and yes, the sixth-gen Mustang is certainly more of a sports car than it’s ever been — outsells all competitors despite a slight downturn compared with 2015.

With 80,829 year-to-date sales, the Mustang outsells the C-Max, Fiesta, and Taurus combined.

Dodge | 31%


Of the 146,634 cars sold by the Dodge brand in the United States in the first eight months of 2016, 45,668 were Challengers and Vipers: 45,260 of the former; 408 of the latter. On both counts, sales of the sports cars are down, but the Challenger (down 4 percent) and Viper (down 11 percent) aren’t falling as fast as the Dodge passenger car range as a whole.

Because of the Dart’s upcoming disappearance, Dodge car sales are down by nearly a fifth this year. Nearly six in ten Dodge sales come from the “light truck” division: Grand Caravan, Durango, Journey.

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.

Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

More by Timothy Cain

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 120 comments
  • Namesakeone Namesakeone on Sep 27, 2016

    I've heard that a sports car has to have a manual transmission (okay, transaxle). This would exclude anything currently made by Ferrari, but would include the Buick Regal. I have also heard that a sports car cannot have a back seat. This would exclude the Porsche 911 (or the late 944, 924 or 928), but include the panel delivery version of the late, unlamented Chevrolet HHR. And a sports car should only have two doors. Include the rental-car variants of the Camaro, Challenger and Mustang; exclude the GTI, WRX and Evo. In other words, it's all but impossible to define what is and what is not a sports car. And all but pointless to try.

  • Ricky Spanish Ricky Spanish on Sep 27, 2016

    The Challenger is not even close to being a sports car.

  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
  • Tassos Jong-iL Communist America Rises!
  • Merc190 A CB7 Accord with the 5 cylinder
  • MRF 95 T-Bird Daihatsu Copen- A fun Kei sized roadster. Equipped with a 660cc three, a five speed manual and a retractable roof it’s all you need. Subaru Levorg wagon-because not everyone needs a lifted Outback.
Next