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Forecasters expected a strong November as far as U.S. light vehicles sales go, and they got a strong November. Data after the jump.
The highlights:
- Chrysler’s group sales rose 14 percent as more or less expected.
- Hyundai is up 8 percent, slightly below expectations..
- Ford sales are up 6.5 percent, higher than expected. Focus sales up 56 percent to 18,312.
- Nissan group sales are up 13 percent, beating expectations by a wide margin.
- GM’s US sales are up 3.3 percent, below expectations.
- Toyota says its U.S. group sales are up 17.2 percent. We call that in-line with expectations,
- Volkswagen U.S. band (not group) sales are up 29.3 percent, slightly better than expected.
And here November’s sales table, courtesy of Automotive News [sub]
(Final Table)
| Automaker | Nov. 2012 | Nov. 2011 | Pct. chng. | 11 month 2012 |
11 month 2011 |
Pct. chng. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW division | 31,213 | 21,521 | 45% | 244,061 | 221,073 | 10% |
| Mini | 5,248 | 4,750 | 11% | 59,667 | 51,800 | 15% |
| Rolls-Royce | 32 | 31 | 3% | 352 | 331 | 6% |
| BMW Group | 36,493 | 26,302 | 39% | 304,080 | 273,204 | 11% |
| Chrysler Division | 18,766 | 18,577 | 1% | 282,454 | 197,372 | 43% |
| Dodge | 40,075 | 30,317 | 32% | 472,598 | 409,492 | 15% |
| Dodge/Ram | 65,149 | 50,731 | 28% | 742,641 | 640,507 | 16% |
| Fiat | 3,603 | 1,618 | 123% | 40,065 | 17,444 | 130% |
| Jeep | 35,047 | 36,246 | –3% | 434,260 | 375,772 | 16% |
| Ram | 25,074 | 20,414 | 23% | 270,043 | 231,015 | 17% |
| Chrysler Group | 122,565 | 107,172 | 14% | 1,499,420 | 1,231,095 | 22% |
| Maybach | 3 | 4 | –25% | 42 | 35 | 20% |
| Mercedes-Benz | 31,945 | 27,841 | 15% | 264,616 | 234,473 | 13% |
| Smart USA | 704 | 414 | 70% | 9,013 | 4,498 | 100% |
| Daimler AG | 32,652 | 28,259 | 16% | 273,671 | 239,006 | 15% |
| Ford division | 171,360 | 160,136 | 7% | 1,955,341 | 1,856,166 | 5% |
| Lincoln | 5,732 | 6,305 | –9% | 74,766 | 77,240 | –3% |
| Mercury | – | – | –% | – | 248 | –100% |
| Ford Motor Co. | 177,092 | 166,441 | 6% | 2,030,107 | 1,933,654 | 5% |
| Buick | 13,289 | 10,880 | 22% | 163,935 | 162,659 | 1% |
| Cadillac | 14,517 | 11,145 | 30% | 131,534 | 136,130 | –3% |
| Chevrolet | 128,867 | 128,907 | 0% | 1,684,555 | 1,614,644 | 4% |
| GMC | 29,832 | 29,470 | 1% | 369,960 | 356,013 | 4% |
| General Motors | 186,505 | 180,402 | 3% | 2,349,984 | 2,269,446 | 4% |
| Acura | 12,246 | 9,909 | 24% | 140,182 | 110,170 | 27% |
| Honda Division | 104,334 | 74,016 | 41% | 1,149,829 | 931,885 | 23% |
| Honda (American) | 116,580 | 83,925 | 39% | 1,290,011 | 1,042,055 | 24% |
| Hyundai division | 53,487 | 46,610 | 8% | 643,572 | 594,926 | 8% |
| Kia | 41,055 | 37,008 | 11% | 518,421 | 442,103 | 17% |
| Hyundai Group | 94,542 | 86,618 | 9% | 1,161,993 | 1,037,029 | 12% |
| Jaguar | 713 | 915 | –22% | 10,962 | 11,119 | –1% |
| Land Rover | 3,687 | 3,820 | –4% | 38,490 | 33,356 | 15% |
| Jaguar Land Rover | 4,400 | 4,735 | –7% | 49,452 | 44,475 | 11% |
| Maserati | 208 | 191 | 9% | 2,397 | 2,083 | 15% |
| Mazda | 21,691 | 18,432 | 18% | 249,795 | 228,073 | 10% |
| Mitsubishi | 3,574 | 3,735 | –4% | 53,677 | 73,988 | –28% |
| Infiniti | 11,897 | 8,428 | 41% | 107,250 | 87,471 | 23% |
| Nissan Division | 84,300 | 76,754 | 10% | 935,116 | 854,136 | 10% |
| Nissan | 96,197 | 85,182 | 13% | 1,042,366 | 941,607 | 11% |
| Saab | – | 356 | –100% | – | 5,340 | –100% |
| Subaru | 28,206 | 17,657 | 60% | 299,788 | 233,288 | 29% |
| Suzuki | – | – | –% | – | – | –% |
| Lexus | 22,719 | 19,458 | 17% | 213,559 | 173,197 | 23% |
| Scion | 5,606 | 3,553 | 58% | 67,983 | 45,112 | 51% |
| Toyota division | 133,370 | 114,949 | 16% | 1,606,819 | 1,248,220 | 29% |
| Toyota/Scion | 138,976 | 118,502 | 17% | 1,674,802 | 1,293,332 | 30% |
| Toyota | 161,695 | 137,960 | 17% | 1,888,361 | 1,466,529 | 29% |
| Audi | 12,067 | 9,700 | 24% | 124,469 | 104,906 | 19% |
| Bentley | 212 | 138 | 54% | 2,078 | 1,560 | 33% |
| Lamborghini | 40 | 29 | 38% | 440 | 311 | 42% |
| Porsche | 3,865 | 2,255 | 71% | 32,091 | 27,189 | 18% |
| VW division | 36,728 | 28,413 | 29% | 394,128 | 291,901 | 35% |
| Volkswagen | 52,912 | 40,535 | 31% | 553,206 | 425,867 | 30% |
| Volvo Cars NA | 6,141 | 4,844 | 27% | 61,967 | 61,898 | 0% |
| Other (estimate) | 239 | 229 | 4% | 2,619 | 2,506 | 5% |
| TOTAL | 1,141,692 | 992,975 | 15% | 13,112,894 | 11,511,143 | 14% |
63 Comments on “November Sales: Another Strong Month, Not So Much For Some (Final Numbers)...”
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Ford is benefiting from the non-coverage of the Fire Escape’s forth conflagration-related recall this year, and this one applies to new Fusions with the Ecoboost engine as well. It is good for Ford to have a media that is in the tank for their union. It is bad to be ignorant enough to rely on that media.
Strangely enough, my wife, who never visits automotive sites, is familiar with Ford’s recent recall issues.
I wonder how that happened. Since the MSM didn’t cover it, I can only assume her hobby is reading DOT safety bulletins.
Or maybe they covered the recall (one of gazillions for the year) but didn’t hyperventilate over it to your complete satisfaction.
She knew that Ford told 89,000 customers to stop driving their cars on Friday night? I’m impressed. The first mention of it that I saw was on Jalopnik this morning.
Reuters is carrying it, The Chicago Tribune has published a story and it’s also carried on NBC Business. Nothing on the NYTimes but, yawn, another recall? Against “The Fiscal Cliff?” The Palestinians getting “Observer Status” and Israel cranking up the settlement machine? Pregnant Kate Middleton? Greece creeping closer (or further) to (from) default?
I know what stories I’d bother to read.
But, aside from the fact that it’s just another recall among the gazillions that have gone before, I’m sure you’re right, it’s a conspiracy! The nearly non-existent NYTimes Printer’s union threatens to down tools and walk if anybody dares mention another Ford recall!
I saw it on Yahoo on Friday on the front page. It’s not a massive tin foil hat conspiracy, so no worries about the evil communist reptilian doomsday prepper conspiracy yet!
I should also note the Yahoo is the most visited news site in the world, so if that’s not good enough for media attention, then I don’t know what is.
Ooops… my mistake. It is on the NYTImes site, 2 days ago.
There’s a conspiracy afoot to get CJinSD to believe in union-oriented conspiracies. It’s a meta-conspiracy.
Heard it on the news Friday night – CTV National here in Canuckistan, plus read it on line on Yahoo on Saturday morning, so I don’t understand your claim that the MSM is guilty of “non-coverage”.
NPR mentioned it first thing. It was not at all hidden by anyone, and was all over mainstream media on Monday. Must be a conspiracy.
A friend has a new Escape, about two months old. It’s sitting at the dealer at the moment (several days now, and it’s the third visit as well) as the dealer tries to figure out how to fix the MyTouch problems.
Ford is definitely at risk if these kinds of problems are widespread.
Normally, I would say that the fix for MFT is to pull it out and install a regular, working stereo. However, since all the car’s functions run through MFT, that really isn’t possible.
Having your car recalled to get something proactively and reasonably promptly fixed doesn’t seem to be a big deal to owners. Toyota does lots of recalls (you hear the FanBoiz whinging about them all the time) and they have good satisfaction ratings and good customer retention.
However, in the case of your friend, loss of use of the vehicle is definitely going to taint the ownership experience.
That was one of the problems I had with Ford, in fact.
Among the individual contributors, I notice that Volt sales, athough they increase 30% or so over November of last year, have decreased by almost 50% from October of this year (2961 down to 1519).
That’s a remarkable drop. GM’s Production report suggests that decreased production is not the cause.
Little early to tell but I wonder if the Volt might be the “new” smart.
Maybe everyone that wanted one now has one. Pretty much happened with each succeeding Hummer model-1 year hits. But this would be without the “hit” part.
We will see.
Cheerio,
Bunter
Bunter,
And it doesn’t help that gas prices fell by 30-40 cents. I am curious to see how Prius sales go.
Prius sales very slightly down from last month, up a few per cent from 2011.
I’m still thinking gas prices had an effect.
I also notice Camaro sales have dipped under 5K. Does not bode well for “The SS.”
‘GM’s Production report suggests that decreased production is not the cause.’
Well, you should take off your blinders and look at more than one month.
Sept Volt Production=1214 units
Oct Volt Production=1710 units
Nov Volt Production=2305 units
3 month Total Volt Production= 5229 units
Sept Volt Sales=2851 units
Oct Volt Sales=2961 units
Nov Volt Sales=1519 units
3 month Total Volt Sales= 7331 units
That’s about 2100 less Volts built than sold over the last three months….add in about 400 or so Canadian sales and you have a 2500 unit reduction in supply for the Volt since August 31st.
Perhaps some lower gas prices…perhaps a little bit of supply shortage in California? There is zero doubt that there are less Volts at dealerships today than there was in the summer.
CYTD thru November:
Volt Production= 22,687
Volt US Sales=20,828
Volt Canadian Sales= 1075 (thru October)
That’s pretty much building to demand if you ask me…and that’s what they said they were going to do.
Why should there be a supply shortage in California? Has GM never figured out the basic logistics of shipping cars to where they’re wanted?
YTD Production is running 1K ahead of YTD sales. I’m not too worried about Volt sales being constrained by inventory.
We might also consider the possibility sales have slowed because GM has finally tired of adding massive incentives to the car in order to move it.
The San Diego Chevrolet Dealers website says there are 284 of them on dealer lots in my area, 17 in my neighborhood.
‘YTD Production is running 1K ahead of YTD sales. I’m not too worried about Volt sales being constrained by inventory’
Its actually about 600 ahead of YTD sales …but OK…you’re about half right.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121203/AUTO0103/212030417/Volt-sales-plummet-due-inventory-issue?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE
Was single digit days supply in California…now recovered to 23. Normal 60 day supply across the country.
Previously announced downtime at plant combined with higher than expected sales in California led to it…and they are replenishing the supply.
Not seeing the drama that you are seeing…oh well.
‘The San Diego Chevrolet Dealers website says there are 284 of them on dealer lots in my area, 17 in my neighborhood.’
If by ‘your area’ you mean a 100 mile radius going into the LA area…yep..that’s about right.
Thanks for the on the ground report.
http://www.chevydealer.com/SanDiego/models/chevrolet-volt
How many within…say 50 miles of your zip? You know, not including LA?
CARS.com showing 34 Volts within 50 miles of 92101 zip.
http://www.chevydealer.com/SanDiego/models/chevrolet-volt/?cs:pro=cgt2&cs:dma=825&cs:loc=en_US&cs:i:v=chevrolet:volt&cs:e=g&cs:gn=s&cs:cid=15174528856&cs:kw=chevrolet%20volt&cs:kt=41W3402100&gclid=CKylta-S_7MCFYl7QgodUEcAYw
80 Volts within 50 miles of 92109.
129 miles is how far I drove my friend a few weeks ago to look at a Honda Fit with a 5-speed manual transmission. I drove 112 miles to get a good deal on my Civic Si.
Sunridge…: “Not seeing the drama…”
I don’t know… 50% reduction, month-on-month, looked fairly dramatic to me, no need to search further for drama.
You did not exlain, by the way, why there should be a supply crisis in CA. If the cars are hot in CA, why aren’t the cars IN CA?
In the grand scheme of things, of course, GM seems to have laid the incentives on, thick and heavy, for two to three months and cut production, thereby creating a supply crisis.
Or not… they started the year with decent inventory and production is ahead of sales.
—
In any event, I had overlooked one of the dimensions of the Prius/Volt sales situation: the C-Max. The DetNews article mentions Ford sold 4800 C-Max and C-Max Energis last month. Energi sales are probably eating into Volt sales (far lower sticker price + a still very significant rebate = relatively low cost PHEV) and base C-Max sales are probably eating into Prius sales.
‘You did not exlain, by the way, why there should be a supply crisis in CA. If the cars are hot in CA, why aren’t the cars IN CA?’
Yes I did…I’ll try again. I will quote myself.
Previously announced downtime at plant combined with higher than expected sales in California led to it…and they are replenishing the supply.
I’ll explain that sentence in more depth.
So, they had plant downtime announced earlier this year…that happened in Sept/Oct timeframe…thus the lower production during those months.
Then, sales were higher than anticipated in Aug/Sept/Oct in California thus the lower supply that is now recovering.
I do think the higher sales in Sept/Oct were driven by the crazy gas prices in California for a bit.
You act like building cars is like making a salad at a salad bar…when you run low you just get back up and add some veggies…it doesn’t work that way.
Cool…so 80 Volts in the greater San Diego area…not the dramatic 284 you first mentioned as being ‘in my area’
Sounds about right for a 30 day supply or so.
Sorry you had to drive to far to see a manual Fit. With sales down 16% YTD for the Fit, it surely wasn’t consumer demand that made you drive that far.
Dealers around here don’t have many Fits. The trip to Burbank was a waste of time. The dealer merely lists the car on his website and pretends it is in stock when customers call. Get there, and the dealer tries to move you to something that he has in stock. My friend wound up using a buying service to actually get a new Fit Sport with a manual transmission. The agent got the same BS from the dealer in LA that we did. Fit sales are down because Honda doesn’t like taking losses and they’re currently made in Japan. Dealers were clearing out the last 2012 Civics this month too, so you really had to want a Fit to pay more for one than a similarly equipped Civic.
Before I put in my zipcode, the Chevy dealer website showed over 4,600 Volts in inventory. I assume that’s national, but it’s still more than a 3 month supply at the current rate.
‘Before I put in my zipcode, the Chevy dealer website showed over 4,600 Volts in inventory. I assume that’s national, but it’s still more than a 3 month supply at the current rate’
Seriously?
‘well, when i went to the website that doesn’t allow national searches it showed 4600 volts for, like, a half a second. so, that means there’s 4600 volts for sale nationwide’
cars.com shows 3611 nationwide
What’s their incentive for listing 4,687 Volts before you narrow down your regional search? Does cars.com include 2012 and 2013 Volts in their new search? Using the Chevrolet.com dealer searches, it only showed me 2013 cars until I switched model year and found additional cars. Maybe the almost twelve hundred cars missing from your total are leftovers.
‘What’s their incentive for listing 4,687 Volts before you narrow down your regional search? Does cars.com include 2012 and 2013 Volts in their new search? ‘
Keep trying man…there aren’t 4687 new Volts in inventory right now in the US no matter how bad you want it to be true.
Cars.com shows both model years. The San Diego Chevy dealer site you went to does not allow nationwide searches. Go there again…look yourself.
Perhaps you saw the total # of Chevy’s in inventory 100 miles from you?
sunridge,
Sure. But there are lots of Volts elsewhere and CA sales (and givebacks) have been running ahead of the other states, anyway. Why aren’t there more Volts in CA as a matter of routine?
And why cut production AND goose the givebacks? If the car is really in demand, then there’s annoyed people in CA who suddenly can’t get Volts. What’t the point of that?
Seriously Kix…do you realize that there aren’t heavy rebates on the Volt right now? TrueCar is showing a $1000 savings in Southern California for purchase. They are offering around $2400 in cap cost reduction for leases. Nothing out of line for a 40k car.
What do you say we meet up in a month and see what sales do in December?
Here’s some reading for you…
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1041941-general-motors-company-sales-trading-statement-call?part=single
Our next question coming from the line of Melissa Burden with Detroit News.
Melissa Burden
I had a couple. Can you give us the overall Volt days supply since you had given for California? And with that, you mentioned that it was an inventory issue. Was production down for a while in November, or could you give a little bit more color for that?
Don Johnson – Vice President of Chevrolet Sales and Service
Yes, it’s Don Johnson again with Chevrolet. We have built up our national days’ supply really just in the last week to about 60 days’ supply. So I think we’re now at the ideal. California is still below that at 23, and a number of other states obviously, to come out at that average, are below it. So we’re just now at a point where we think the inventory in many parts of the country is where it needs to be. California is still lagging. And, yes, as we prepared Hamtramck for the new Impala, we had to take some production downtime. So that did impact our ability to supply the market. Plus, quite frankly, sales in the last 2 months were a little bit more robust than we had originally anticipated. So both record sales, as well as the downtime we had to take contributed to the shortage, but we’re on our path back now.
Melissa Burden
Government sales and GE’s purchases were likely behind the bump. Strange the sales figures dropped off after the election. Is is possible the WH was hyping sales to keep Michigan in the fold. They were even wiring the Embassy in Austria to recharge their Volts. Funds apparently came from unexpended State Dept.funds (slush fund).
“What do you say we meet up in a month and see what sales do in December?”
Will you have new talking points in hand, or will you dissemble spontaneously for us?
Sunridge…: “Seriously Kix…do you realize that there aren’t heavy rebates on the Volt right now?”
Seriously? As in, you don’t seriously expect me to consider $7500 in federal tax credits and priceless HOV access in addition to the cash GM piles on to be something other than “heavy” rebates?
Really CJ…talking points? Come on man. Kix asked the same damn question 4 different ways about California.
Were those ‘talking points’ you were using the other day saying how you thought the RLX looked good and would be a success?
Were you using ‘talking points’ when you stated the mainstream media was ignoring the Ford recall and you were pretty much wrong?
I thought you would be busy looking for those extra Volt inventory that momentarily appeared on your computer a few hours ago then disappeared?
I opened another browser and the 4,687 Volts just sit there, since I won’t offer a zip code this time. The RLX exterior doesn’t work for me, but the interior is far, far nicer than it got credit for from TTAC’s reviewer. I doubt that saying the front fender line looks dumb was a Honda talking point, yet I can say I don’t like it without it compelling me to pretend that the interior isn’t class-leading.
Maybe you really believe that underhood Toyota gasoline fires wouldn’t be leading headlines. Sadly, I would believe you if you said that you thought so. Maybe you’d rationalize it by sighting some shorted electric window wiring, since we all know that electrical shorts in doors and high pressure fuel hoses spewing onto exhaust manifolds present the same threat. Whatever. Just like $7,500 from the federal government isn’t an incentive to buy a Volt…
The 2013 Malibu doesn’t seem to be setting the world on fire, either. Sales declined very slightly from last year.
Which is worse: Not setting the world on fire, or (like the Escape & Fisker Karma) setting the world on fire?
I was trying soooo hard not to make that joke.
My local Chevy dealer had built a canopy with electric charging stations and had new Volts parked there. Last Sunday when I passed, the cars under the canopy were all Camaros. No Volts in sight.
typical situation everywhere I’ve seen.
Minor typo: ‘band’ should probably be ‘brand’ (though there might well be a VW band out there):
“Volkswagen U.S. band (not group) sales are up…”
Captain Obvious reporting for duty. How many months in a row is this where GM has been the biggest laggard in the market? Virtually every other manufacturer is gaining on them (and has been for the last 2 years), which means that they continue to shed share. Ford was 10K units behind for November – in other words, if Lincoln was selling where they should be in a more perfect world, Ford would have outsold GM for the month.
The fact that Ford (which is not exactly having breakout growth) continues to gain month after month should be a cause for concern. Last year, Chrysler was 1 million units behind GM. This year it is 800K. Those two companies are on very different trajectories.
‘How many months in a row is this where GM has been the biggest laggard in the market? ‘
Since you asked….One.
GM was up 4.7% in October. Ford was up .3% in October. Nissan was down 3.2% in October. Hyundai was down 4.1% in October.
As long as you’re playing Captain Obvious. It should be obvious to you that November was all about trucks sales (or lack thereof)
Cars were up 19% year over year. Crossover were up 9%. Trucks were down 11%.
Compared to Ford/Ram, they are ancient in trucks. That will change next year helping both sales and the bottom line. Plus, the tsunami effect will be over and put things back into perspective with Toyota/Hyundai year over year comparisons.
GM is less dependant on trucks/full size SUV’s as 5-10 years ago…but its still the biggest drag. GM car sales are up about 7% YTD versus 2011 when they had Toyota/Honda severaly constrained.
VW won’t launch any new segments that I know of. Hyundai is apparently capacity constrained to grow too much in the next year or two. A year from now when the 2014 Silverado/Sierra’s are fully launched should be revealing.
They might be ancient in trucks but the new stuff is only marginally better. Incentives and brand loyalty probably have more to do with sales than features.
If I was GM, I’d be alarmed at sales of the Malibu. They are flat compared to last year at just over 10K. They’re way off their peak. Weren’t they selling into the mid-20K’s a year or two ago?
‘If I was GM, I’d be alarmed at sales of the Malibu. They are flat compared to last year at just over 10K. They’re way off their peak. Weren’t they selling into the mid-20K’s a year or two ago?’
Any time you saw the Malibu over 20k units in the past it was probably 50% fleet or higher.
Malibu was up 9% retail over October and the turbo is just arriving. 2013’s are transacting 4k higher per unit than the previous generation.
Given your concern with Volt month over month drop..the Malibu month over month rise should make you feel better…especially with a launch product.
The Malibu is NOT going to be 1 or 2 or even 3 in its segment. No one ever said it would. Its 5th or 6th place. It just needs to be profitable.
What? Fifty per cent fleet? You mean GM was LYING when they said they wouldn’t do that with the Malibu, to protect its value?
Toyota sold about 28K Camrys last month. It’s OK for the Malibu to be something other than Number One but they’re probably be outsold close to 3 to 1, retail, by the Camry. And they’re doing that level of business with about twice the number of dealerships Toyota has.
And that’s with the *new* Malibu. The 2013. It’s going to go downhill from there.
This is a ringing indictment from the market that the Malibu is nowhere near as good as the Camry.
Good lord Kix…go to bed. Are you even reading what I wrote?
I said when the Malibu was over 20k units in the PAST (which you referenced..not me) it was usually 50% plus fleet.
I could also try and explain the difference between GM cash rebates and government rebates that all OEM’s have access to but you’re not worth the effort. You know better.
Yes, the Camry outsells the Malibu…woo hoo!
November 2012 GM US Market Share – 16%
Didn`t you say down to 15% by year end. Only one month to go!
yes, that was the call at the beginning of the year.
Call me stupid, but I really don’t understand some of the breakouts.
Chrysler has Dodge, Ram, and Dodge/Ram and Toyota has Toyota, Scion, and Toyota/Scion. Which is which? It would make sense to merge Ram and Scion into the main brands if you don’t want to count them separately, but this list counts them both separately and merged, with different numbers.
Also, I was under the impression that Kia Motors America and Hyundai Motor America still reported sales separately and not through Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, but it looks like this time they’re together.
That’s because Automotive News does it that way. And they do it that way to allow year-over-year comparisons, since the Dodge/Ram split was done partway through 2011, so the “Dodge/Ram” category totals all vehicles under both brands. Should be gone for 2013 sales reporting.
I agree with Warren Buffet, GM will be back on the offensive very shortly. I never have thought about buying a Cadillac before but they are all of a sudden building some compelling cars. Have to give credit where credit is due with the ATS. Coming soon, the toned down Escalade will be huge. The luxury version of the Volt, the Cadillac ELR seems like a game changer.
GM’s next fullsize truck platform will have legs as long as gas stays affordable.
I don`t know if the ELR will be a game changer but it will be the first luxury electric car from a major manufacturer. Maybe it will last longer than the HS!
“it will be the first luxury electric car from a major manufacturer.”
I think the i8 is due to be out at around the same time frame as the ELR, so there is a chance the ELR might not be the first. Although, since the i8 is a new design and not based on an existing volume brand vehicle, there is probably a bit more risk that it could be delayed.
Observations:
Daimler really should stop throwing money down the Smart rat hole. The little Fiat is outselling Smart five time over.
The US domestics all underperformed the market, though Chrysler came close. GM’s performance was a dismal 6% up in a 15% up market. Ouch.
BMW is kicking Daimler’s tush on all fronts. The Mini outsells the Smart by 10x. Rolls outsells Maybach by 10x. BMW brand sales rose 45% vs. a market average 15% growth at Mercedes, and the two brands are now neck and neck in the US market. Mercedes has become an old man’s brand, which is never a good thing.
Nothing to do with old men. My daughter’s roomie is from a Merc family who rode nothing but Benzes since 1970s (they are high profile interpreters who work for UN and various embassies). They still have 3 and gripe endlessly as to what garbage they have become, reliability-wise. Not sure if they have already bought that Infi M they planned though, and don’t want to lie about that. Maybe they’ll hold their nose and buy “one final” Benz this time as they always did. But they definitely know about the problems first hand.
I get it now it’s a Rorschach test. I think I see that Kilroy was here.
Is Mitsubishi in really big trouble? DeathWatch sized trouble?
The EPA scandal doesn’t seem to be having much of any effect on Hyundai Group’s sales. I didn’t think it would either.
They lost market share this month, which I don’t think has happened in a while. Their sales grew 9% while the market grew by 15%, so a smaller percentage of buyers chose their cars.