Sales: Compact Crossovers, March 2011

by Edward Niedermeyer

April 6th, 2011 2:51 PM

Escape and CR-V swapped spots last month, although Honda’s long-running compact CUV retained the top position in Year-To-Date sales. Toyota’s RAV4 dropped significantly last month compared to March 2010’s incentive-fueled volume binge, and though sales were up compared to the month before, it wasn’t enough to retake third place in the YTD standings from Equinox. The only other model failing to top its year-ago numbers was the Forester, a fact that may indicate a slowdown in Subaru’s strong recession-era sales growth. And though Nissan’s Juke is based on a B-segment platform and offers considerably less utility than the rest of the C-CUVs, it outsold Mazda’s CX-7, earning itself a spot on our chart.

#NewCars #Sales

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8 of 27 comments

Mjz on Apr 06, 2011

Why isn't the Jeep Compass here? Dodge Caliber no longer offers 4WD, so that's understandable.

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SV on Apr 06, 2011

I agree with earlier posts that the Escape's appeal probably lies in its truck-like styling, good visibility and low price, but I wonder how much of a fleet queen it is; do rental agencies even buy small SUVs?

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- NulloModo on Apr 06, 2011
  
  We sell a ton of Escapes retail, but we do sell them as fleet vehicles as well. There doesn't seem to be much rental business with them, but they are popular company cars. Progressive and various other insurance companies seem to like Escapes, and they are also popular for local construction/trade business to use for their estimators - you can fit a lot of stuff in the back, the styling lends itself well to a vehicle wrap, and with the 4 cylinder you get great gas mileage.
  
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- WRohrl on Apr 06, 2011
  
  Here in Colorado there are tons of rental small SUV's, including most of the Jeep products, Escape, RAV4, all the Kia's, Mazda's as well. I can't recall seeing a CRV anytime recently but everything else, sure, most of the above list is represented in one rental fleet or another.
  
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- OldandSlow on Apr 07, 2011
  
  Locally, the vast majority of Escapes are purchased by individuals. Those that are in commercial fleets tend to be hybrids, which are good for 32 mpg in the city.
  
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Sam P on Apr 06, 2011

Considering that the Equinox platform-mate is relatively attractive in comparison, I'm surprised GM even bothered to sell & market the fugly Terrain. Judging by the over 2 to 1 sales ratio, I'm not alone in thinking this.

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- NulloModo on Apr 07, 2011
  
  There are more Chevy dealers than Buick/GMC dealers. If you look at pretty much any vehicle where there is a GMC copy of the Chevy, the Chevy outsells it by a fair margin. While on one hand I think it would make a lot of sense to get rid of GMC entirely, and move all GM dealers to combined Chevrolet/Buick/Cadillac dealers, apparently GMC is profitable enough to keep alive, and with small crossovers being a booming segment, GM needed something for the Buick/GMC dealers to sell. Perhaps (and possibly correctly) GM figured that offering a Buick Theta-based crossover would create too much overlap with the Equinox and the SRX, so instead it went to GMC and received macho man styling to differentiate it.
  
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Accs on Apr 22, 2011

Why is the Mazda CX-7 in "competition" against Juke, Escape, Equinox and or CRV? Mazda CX-7 is more in line with Edge, Pilot, G.C, Murano, Journey, Highlander...

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