Comments on: By The Numbers: December. Bah Humbug!

By: blautens

blautens — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:08:29 +0000

Mr. Williams -

As always, great article. Keep up the excellent work.

By: Donal

Donal — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:24:50 +0000

Ongoing slump in autos

Although this has become a familiar story, there is one interesting new development. For some time the trend has been that while total vehicle sales fell, sales of imported vehicles rose. Something curious happened last month, however, in that vehicles manufactured in North America actually gained market share relative to the imports.

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2008/01/ongoing_slump_i.html

Another take on the data …

By: Bunter1

Bunter1 — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:08:35 +0000

Oops! I guess the Toyota figures I saw included Scion. No wonder it’s not news…yet.

By: Geotpf

Geotpf — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:14:26 +0000

Matthew Danda-Jury’s still out on the new xB. Sales were up 13.7% in December and 10.4% in November, but it’s a new model and they should be up. It definitely didn’t fall flat on it’s face, though, even though nobody here likes it.

However, the xD is a confirmed dud, selling worse than even the mediocre sales of the old xA which it replaced.

By: Bunter1

Bunter1 — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:46:04 +0000

I was looking at a break down for the year on Autoblog and noticed that the number one brand for 2007 was Toyota. They ended up about 25k buggies ahead of Chevy.

Surprised that hasn’t made more news.

By: jurisb

jurisb — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:55:53 +0000

MY deepest condolences to the Detroit big 3! You deserve it!

By: Matthew Danda

Matthew Danda — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:24:17 +0000

So, is the new Americanized Scion xB a success? I am curious if Toyota’s decision to remove its Anime-cool personality resulted better sales or worse sales.

By: lprocter1982

lprocter1982 — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:31:05 +0000

I’d be very interested to see how Hyundai is faring as compared to the other major manufacturers, and Hyundai does offer a similar lineup as Honda (save for the sorta-pickup Ridgeline.) Seeing as Hyundai has traditionally offered similar vehicles for less money than the competition, I think it would be suitable to highlight the Korean impact on the market (or the market’s impact on Hyundai, whatever.)

By: BlueBrat

BlueBrat — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:14:39 +0000

I’m curious about Hyundia’s growth mostly because they are. I’ve seen two sets of numbers for year-end sales on Hyundai and they don’t match up.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:02:13 +0000

I too am confused as to what you are counting and not counting in this article. But the list of car makers that had positive growth for all light vehicles in US, both for in December year-over-year, and for the full year:

BMW
Chrysler (exception: NOT for full year)
Ferrari
Honda (just barely)
Hyundai (or Hyundai-Kia, but not Kia alone)
Mazda (if you want to count it separately)
Lambo
Lotus
Maserati
Porsche
Suzuki

Fat times for super-car drivers!

By: Frank Williams

Frank Williams — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:37:53 +0000

wsn :
Interesting. The author left out Honda. The car maker that posted both Dec and whole year gain. Do they sell too few Accords, Civics and CRVs to be mentioned?

As I stated when I started this series using the charts, I didn’t include Honda because they don’t have vehicles in two of the four categories I’m tracking – full size pickups and large SUVs. AND, as I stated at the end of the article, I’m going to add Honda to the 2008 charts in the categories where they do offer vehicles.

Also, it doesn’t make much sense to consider the percentage change without the actual units sold figure.

The units sold are reflected in the graphs.

By: wsn

wsn — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:27:53 +0000

Interesting. The author left out Honda. The car maker that posted both Dec and whole year gain. Do they sell too few Accords, Civics and CRVs to be mentioned?

Also, it doesn’t make much sense to consider the percentage change without the actual units sold figure.

By: Point Given

Point Given — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:08:45 +0000

Nissan:
Titan down 9.2% on the year 65k units moved
Frontier down 17% on the year 64K units moved
The original CUV the Murano down 6.5% with 76K units

Versa moved 79k for the year, Altima was up 22% to 284K units. Sentra, Maxima and 350z were all down for the year (10%, 24%, and 23% respectively)

As a whole Nissan moved 941,200 units up 4.5% from last year. Infiniti was up the same 4.5% to 127,038 vehicles.

By: Landcrusher

Landcrusher — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:43:55 +0000

I’m with Joe. Are people choosing smaller engines? Are the going further and choosing smaller cars?

By: Joe O

Joe O — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:34:41 +0000

I’d like to add a small request: In the luxury or entry-level luxury car segment, how did sales of the higher consumption vehicles change vs. lower.

I.e. How did the BMW 528 fair? The Infiniti M35 vs M45? The Lexus IS250 vs IS350 (though that’s tough, as the AWD version is only offered on the IS250 and it is winter-time)…

The Acura TSX vs TL, the Merc. E350 vs E500, etc.

I’m looking at models that haven’t had any significant changes, and curious if sales of their less hungry counterparts increased in direct relation to a decrease in the hoonorific varieties (I haven’t seen the word hoon on this site in like 2 months now).

I’m curious if the middle-upper-class and up are choosing vehicles with less fuel consumption more often, even though they can, arguably, easily afford the fluctuations of gas prices at this time.

Joe

By: Sherman Lin

Sherman Lin — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:50:05 +0000

With the shift towards more fuel efficient vehicles, add a comparison of the sales on the Corolla, Cobalt, Focus and Civic

By: Juniper

Juniper — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:52:06 +0000

Since this is about numbers the new Chrysler minivans had a pretty good December. The reason for Chryslers Dec numbers