Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Japanese Earthquake in Switzerland

by Matt Gasnier

Published: September 18th, 2012

best selling cars around the globe japanese earthquake in switzerland

After marking September 11 with the US 2001 best-sellers, announcing the launch of the Africa Project and a couple of world updates ( Top 150 best-selling models in June 2012 and our monthly World Roundup for July 2012), today I have to stop in Switzerland because we are witnessing a Japanese earthquake there…

Not in the mood for mountainous countries? There are 167 other countries and territories in my blog ready for you to explore, so get to it!

Back to Switzerland.

Japanese earthquake?

I can hear you wondering what the … I’m talking about.

Well you see, Switzerland is very much like Germany when it comes to cars. Actually, the Swiss are more German than the Germans: the Volkswagen Golf has been the best-selling model since its inception in 1974, (that’s a whopping 38 years vs. around 20 for the Beetle!) whereas in Germany the Golf’s reign was interrupted by the Mercedes W123 in 1980.

And here comes the earthquake.

Although I haven’t received access to monthly sales figures in Switzerland before 2011, looking at the market share difference between the Golf and the #2 model at the end of each year, it is fair to assume that the Golf has been dominating the Swiss models ranking almost every single month since 1974.

In August 2012 and possibly for the first time since the nameplate’s original launch in 1974, the VW Golf is not the #1 model in Switzerland, not even #2 but #3 with 625 sales and 2.8 percent share.

‘Switzerland in XV fever’

There are two culprits in this unheard-of move: the Skoda Octavia, ranking at its usual #2 but passing the Golf for potentially the first time ever with 661 units and 3 percent share – still lower than its year-to-date level at 3.2 percent, and the outstanding performer of the month: the Subaru XV. After shooting up to a world-best 4th place last month, the XV does the unthinkable: it is up 3 spots to an unbelievable first place in Switzerland with 722 sales and 3.3 percent share – and this is even without counting sales of its twin Impreza (39)!

#BestSellingCarsAroundTheGlobe #MattGasnier #Switzerland

Matt Gasnier

More by Matt Gasnier

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 10 comments

Robert.Walter on Sep 19, 2012

The farmers here love them some Subaroo 4x4s!

Like Reply
Infernovideo on Oct 23, 2012

And what % of those XV's are diesel powered? Why not for the Canadian market, I'd buy it with a Diesel.

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Jalop1991 In a manner similar to PHEV being the correct answer, I declare RPVs to be the correct answer here.We're doing it with certain aircraft; why not with cars on the ground, using hardware and tools like Telsa's "FSD" or GM's "SuperCruise" as the base?Take the local Uber driver out of the car, and put him in a professional centralized environment from where he drives me around. The system and the individual car can have awareness as well as gates, but he's responsible for the driving.Put the tech into my car, and let me buy it as needed. I need someone else to drive me home; hit the button and voila, I've hired a driver for the moment. I don't want to drive 11 hours to my vacation spot; hire the remote pilot for that. When I get there, I have my car and he's still at his normal location, piloting cars for other people.The system would allow for driver rest period, like what's required for truckers, so I might end up with multiple people driving me to the coast. I don't care. And they don't have to be physically with me, therefore they can be way cheaper.Charge taxi-type per-mile rates. For long drives, offer per-trip rates. Offer subscriptions, including miles/hours. Whatever.(And for grins, dress the remote pilots all as Johnnie.)Start this out with big rigs. Take the trucker away from the long haul driving, and let him be there for emergencies and the short haul parts of the trip.And in a manner similar to PHEVs being discredited, I fully expect to be razzed for this brilliant idea (not unlike how Alan Kay wasn't recognized until many many years later for his Dynabook vision).
B-BodyBuick84 Not afraid of AV's as I highly doubt they will ever be %100 viable for our roads. Stop-and-go downtown city or rush hour highway traffic? I can see that, but otherwise there's simply too many variables. Bad weather conditions, faded road lines or markings, reflective surfaces with glare, etc. There's also the issue of cultural norms. About a decade ago there was actually an online test called 'The Morality Machine' one could do online where you were in control of an AV and choose what action to take when a crash was inevitable. I think something like 2.5 million people across the world participated? For example, do you hit and most likely kill the elderly couple strolling across the crosswalk or crash the vehicle into a cement barrier and almost certainly cause the death of the vehicle occupants? What if it's a parent and child? In N. America 98% of people choose to hit the elderly couple and save themselves while in Asia, the exact opposite happened where 98% choose to hit the parent and child. Why? Cultural differences. Asia puts a lot of emphasis on respecting their elderly while N. America has a culture of 'save/ protect the children'. Are these AV's going to respect that culture? Is a VW Jetta or Buick Envision AV going to have different programming depending on whether it's sold in Canada or Taiwan? how's that going to effect legislation and legal battles when a crash inevitibly does happen? These are the true barriers to mass AV adoption, and in the 10 years since that test came out, there has been zero answers or progress on this matter. So no, I'm not afraid of AV's simply because with the exception of a few specific situations, most avenues are going to prove to be a dead-end for automakers.
Mike Bradley Autonomous cars were developed in Silicon Valley. For new products there, the standard business plan is to put a barely-functioning product on the market right away and wait for the early-adopter customers to find the flaws. That's exactly what's happened. Detroit's plan is pretty much the opposite, but Detroit isn't developing this product. That's why dealers, for instance, haven't been trained in the cars.
Dartman https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-fighter-jets-air-force-6a1100c96a73ca9b7f41cbd6a2753fdaAutonomous/Ai is here now. The question is implementation and acceptance.
FreedMike If Dodge were smart - and I don't think they are - they'd spend their money refreshing and reworking the Durango (which I think is entering model year 3,221), versus going down the same "stuff 'em full of motor and give 'em cool new paint options" path. That's the approach they used with the Charger and Challenger, and both those models are dead. The Durango is still a strong product in a strong market; why not keep it fresher?