April Sales: Midsized Sedans

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

The established Accord/Camry duopoly on the Midsized segment wasn’t in any serious trouble this month, but as tsunami-related shortages hit Honda, Toyota and Nissan, things could be in flux. In fact, the big story for April seems to be the relaxing of demand for Fusion and Altima, which still occupy a distinct second tier behind Accord/Camry in the Year-To-Date race. Behind those four, the Sonata and Malibu are neck-in-neck in the YTD standings, with the fleet-happy Impala (easy there Bias Police, AN [sub] reports that “In March, about 75 percent of Impala sales went to fleets and rental-car companies”) and the supply-constrained Prius trailing the pack. And then there’s everyone else. Chrysler Group’s midsizers are improving their sales, Legacy is in a holding patter, Maxima is showing its age and the Mazda6… well, that’s just a sad story, isn’t it? NB: VW did not sell a single Passat last month. Passat CC numbers will be in our weird mash-up segment of large/premium sedans.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Philadlj Philadlj on May 06, 2011

    From last month: ...while Ford’s Fusion battles with the best-sellers...Malibu is falling out of the front pack and into the second tier of competition. Still, with the volatility we’re seeing in this segment, it’s too early to draw any hard-and-fast conclusions. The Malibu surge this month surprised me. That 24K number would be all the more impressive if there wasn't a significant increase in Malibu fleet sales or incentives. While GM makes no bones about Impala being primarily a fleet special (let's be honest, at this point it's GM's Panther), they'd rather sell Malibus (especially the next generation) to consumers. Perhaps this was a Malibu and Sonata month, just as last month was an Altima and Fusion month. It's really hard to predict this segment, as the only constant seems to be the lack of any consistently dominant leader. Also, if Subaru Camry-fied the Subaru to try to elevate sales into the second or even first tier, they aren't succeeding. This bodes well for a next-gen Legacy with a little more personality.

    • SVX pearlie SVX pearlie on May 06, 2011

      As usual, *each* of the top 3 models in this segment sell more cars than the entire Subaru lineup *combined*. And Subaru is selling at maximum production capacity. With that in perspective, the Legacy is selling quite well and contributing to those numbers. For Subaru to sell more, they will need more plant capacity.

  • PennSt8 PennSt8 on May 06, 2011

    The Fusion is made @ one plant, and if I'm not mistaken that plant is only capable of producing 300,000 units a year. At the current selling rate Ford doesn't have much wiggle room, especially when you take into account the fact that the MKZ is built at the same facility.

    • Zackman Zackman on May 06, 2011

      There's a very nice, wide-open closed Ford plant at Wixam for the taking!

  • Mjz Mjz on May 06, 2011

    Looks like the Eminem Super Bowl ad did the trick. The Chrysler 200 is staring to became a player in this segment. The 200 seems to be in short supply at the dealers

  • SherbornSean SherbornSean on May 06, 2011

    Subaru has been riding the AWD wave -- some 30% of cars now sell with AWD. 0% sell with snow tires.

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