Whose Cars Are The Freshest?

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Cars are like fruits and vegetables: They sell better fresh. Of course, even the freshest dud remains a dud. But all else being equal, those with a fresher line-up outsell those with aged product. TrueCar has put together an interesting table: What are the proportions of model year 2011 (yes, they are still on the lots), 2012, and 2013 in a brand’s sales?

Freshness is tops

BrandMY 2011MY 2012MY 2013Hyundai0.00%58.30%41.70%Lexus1.00%68.20%30.80%Acura0.60%69.00%30.40%Mazda0.70%74.30%25.00%BMW2.20%73.30%24.60%Kia0.20%76.50%23.20%Infiniti1.10%76.80%22.10%Audi0.20%80.50%19.30%Lincoln4.90%77.60%17.50%Volvo25.00%58.30%16.70%Ford1.20%84.10%14.60%Overall1.20%92.10%6.70%Scion0.00%94.10%5.90%Porsche0.70%94.30%5.10%Subaru0.10%96.70%3.20%Volkswagen0.50%97.40%2.10%Chevrolet1.70%96.70%1.70%Cadillac2.10%96.70%1.20%Mercedes-Benz1.00%97.80%1.20%Toyota1.10%98.80%0.10%Nissan1.50%98.40%0.10%GMC1.30%98.60%0.10%FIAT0.00%100.00%0.00%Honda0.30%99.70%0.00%MINI0.70%99.30%0.00%Jeep0.70%99.30%0.00%Suzuki0.80%99.20%0.00%Ram1.20%98.80%0.00%Buick1.60%98.40%0.00%Dodge2.00%98.00%0.00%Chrysler2.80%97.30%0.00%Jaguar3.10%96.90%0.00%Land Rover3.20%96.80%0.00%Mitsubishi5.00%95.00%0.00%

It is quite interesting to see that import brands and luxury brands have already a strong amount of sales with model-year 2013 sales in June.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • APaGttH APaGttH on Jul 16, 2012

    Well I'll give Bertel credit, he's all about equal opportunity when it comes to upsetting the B&B. I'm going back to eating popcorn.

  • MisterIkester MisterIkester on Jul 16, 2012

    There's a Honda dealer 5 minutes outside of Atlanta selling a new '11 Civic EX coupe for $19K (http://bit.ly/Ns4lqi) . Kinda perplexing in a city where Passports seem to outnumber Rodeos 2:1. Meanwhile, the same dealer has a CPO '10 with >25K on the clock selling for $18.5K (http://bit.ly/MBGCAA0) . Da fuq?

  • BrianL BrianL on Jul 16, 2012

    I understand occasionally when an major redesign comes out, they introduce it early in the year. But when 41% of the sales of a brand are next years model in June, it leaves me scratching my head a bit on the relevancy of this statistic.

  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Jul 16, 2012

    Personally I go by the date of manufacture on the door panel as my 'model year'.

    • See 2 previous
    • 84Cressida 84Cressida on Jul 17, 2012

      @bikegoesbaa My Cressida was built in September of 1983 and is a 1984 model, yet there are some differences between the 1983 model, which was built until July of that year. The side mirrors are different, the cloth upholstery is different that most '83s (as far as I can tell, late build '83s used the '84 velour), and the gauge cluster was redesigned on the '84 to include a 130 mph top speed speedometer. All those parts would likely still be plug n' play, but it does show that even vehicles of the same generation have differences.

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