Chart Of The Day: Subcompacts In July And Year To Date
In contrast to rapid changes in the compact and midsized segments, the subcompact segment is moving along established trendlines. Kia’s Soul has completely overtaken this segment’s previous champ, but that’s been a long time coming. A new Accent is arriving at dealers, and that model’s starting to take off… in fact, if there’s news here, it’s that the Accent appears to be outselling the segment’s next-freshest offering, the Ford Fiesta. Otherwise, Aveo and Rio are dropping off ahead of their replacement by new models, the 500 is getting closer to MINI’s monthly volume, and Mazda2 can’t quite get past the Cube The YTD chart doesn’t show too many changes either… but watch this space as the A/B segment heats up with new models later this year.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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I think Fiat buys them and sends to Nigeria as part of Fiat-Nigerian Letters scheme whereby Fiat agreed to purchase Chrysler from the US Gov and as part of the purchase deal Fiat would "sell" its 500 in the US so that our fuel economy improves. Fiat sells and then buys back all the 500s, then sells them in Nigeria or converts to scrap, which in total cost is still cheaper than if they paid cash for Chrysler. So it is in Fiat's interest if its US sales tank.
Mini's dominate where I live in the Boston suburbs. Though they change so little, it may be hard to judge. I think the Soul is a urbanite vehicle, few here in the suburbs. I'm seeing more and more Fiestas and new Accents. Fits I only ever see on the highway, few nearby. I think the 500's price advantage on the Mini will do some damage. I expect to see them here in the exurbs, but only one so far. The Versa, Aveo and Yaris all seem to be cars bought solely on price.
Tons of Souls down here in South FL. Maybe ex Scion xB owners are going after them? I love the Hamster ad however I think it sells well because CUV are hot items and a cheap mini-CUV is perfect for many folks. I know someone who's 20-something daughter just bought one. The Cube is just too Japanese cartoon-ish looking to sell in big numbers. The MINI might be in this class based on size... but not on price. It will be interesting to watch what the 500 does, they just starting marketing it but I predict a flash-in-the-pan: very hot sales that quickly cool.
So we are calling the Kia Soul, Nissan Cube, and Scion xB "subcompacts"? I think the EPA classifies subcompacts as vehicles with 85-99 cubic feet of volume. I believe all three have more volume than that, but if you bumped them into the compact class you wouldn't have as good of a story now would you?