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April is Detroit month. Strong sales of pickups and crossovers bring double digit gains to Detroit while other brands lag. Final table, courtesy of Automotive New [sub].
April 2013 U.S. Auto Sales
| Automaker | April 2013 | April 2012 | Pct. chng.th> | 4 month 2013 |
4 month 2012 |
Pct. chng. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW division | 23,225 | 21,062 | 10% | 88,127 | 82,611 | 7% |
| Mini | 5,786 | 5,731 | 1% | 19,841 | 19,911 | 0% |
| Rolls-Royce | 84 | 79 | 6% | 336 | 316 | 6% |
| BMW Group | 29,095 | 26,872 | 8% | 108,304 | 102,838 | 5% |
| Chrysler Division | 27,836 | 31,879 | –13% | 107,520 | 111,217 | –3% |
| Dodge | 53,413 | 45,248 | 18% | 212,164 | 171,470 | 24% |
| Dodge/Ram | 85,537 | 66,753 | 28% | 323,642 | 262,470 | 23% |
| Fiat | 3,899 | 3,849 | 1% | 13,511 | 12,699 | 6% |
| Jeep | 39,426 | 38,684 | 2% | 140,377 | 152,830 | –8% |
| Ram | 32,124 | 21,505 | 49% | 111,478 | 91,000 | 23% |
| Chrysler Group | 156,698 | 141,165 | 11% | 585,050 | 539,216 | 9% |
| Maybach | – | 4 | –100% | – | 16 | –100% |
| Mercedes-Benz | 25,490 | 24,304 | 5% | 98,511 | 88,952 | 11% |
| Smart USA | 667 | 764 | –13% | 2,860 | 3,028 | –6% |
| Daimler AG | 26,157 | 25,072 | 4% | 101,371 | 91,996 | 10% |
| Ford division | 204,369 | 173,350 | 18% | 785,286 | 690,336 | 14% |
| Lincoln | 7,615 | 6,308 | 21% | 23,514 | 27,144 | –13% |
| Ford | 211,984 | 179,658 | 18% | 808,800 | 717,480 | 13% |
| Buick | 17,157 | 15,446 | 11% | 64,777 | 52,782 | 23% |
| Cadillac | 13,230 | 9,851 | 34% | 55,942 | 40,817 | 37% |
| Chevrolet | 172,460 | 155,487 | 11% | 642,164 | 603,621 | 6% |
| GMC | 34,799 | 32,603 | 7% | 139,726 | 124,487 | 12% |
| General Motors | 237,646 | 213,387 | 11% | 902,609 | 821,707 | 10% |
| Acura | 13,899 | 12,175 | 14% | 48,852 | 42,980 | 14% |
| Honda Division | 117,100 | 109,837 | 7% | 419,798 | 399,197 | 5% |
| Honda (American) | 130,999 | 122,012 | 7% | 468,650 | 442,177 | 6% |
| Hyundai division | 63,315 | 62,264 | 2% | 227,645 | 225,837 | 1% |
| Kia | 47,556 | 47,550 | 0% | 174,488 | 185,610 | –6% |
| Hyundai Group | 110,871 | 109,814 | 1% | 402,133 | 411,447 | –2% |
| Jaguar | 1,141 | 1,073 | 6% | 4,726 | 4,401 | 7% |
| Land Rover | 3,543 | 3,292 | 8% | 15,962 | 13,951 | 14% |
| Jaguar Land Rover | 4,684 | 4,365 | 7% | 20,688 | 18,352 | 13% |
| Maserati | 204 | 232 | –12% | 753 | 834 | –10% |
| Mazda | 19,894 | 21,506 | –8% | 98,177 | 103,529 | –5% |
| Mitsubishi | 4,461 | 5,280 | –16% | 20,457 | 21,887 | –7% |
| Infiniti | 7,844 | 7,129 | 10% | 35,220 | 33,349 | 6% |
| Nissan Division | 80,003 | 64,200 | 25% | 370,908 | 360,341 | 3% |
| Nissan | 87,847 | 71,329 | 23% | 406,128 | 393,690 | 3% |
| Subaru | 32,943 | 26,310 | 25% | 125,470 | 106,878 | 17% |
| Suzuki* | – | 1,773 | –100% | 5,946 | 8,335 | –29% |
| Lexus | 18,091 | 17,551 | 3% | 74,831 | 66,647 | 12% |
| Scion | 5,697 | 5,503 | 4% | 22,074 | 20,674 | 7% |
| Toyota division | 152,372 | 154,990 | –2% | 608,699 | 578,006 | 5% |
| Toyota/Scion | 158,069 | 160,493 | –2% | 630,773 | 598,680 | 5% |
| Toyota | 176,160 | 178,044 | –1% | 705,604 | 665,327 | 6% |
| Audi | 13,157 | 11,521 | 14% | 47,343 | 40,991 | 16% |
| Bentley | 207 | 203 | 2% | 781 | 653 | 20% |
| Lamborghini* | 46 | 43 | 7% | 184 | 172 | 7% |
| Porsche | 4,032 | 3,437 | 17% | 13,681 | 10,596 | 29% |
| VW division | 33,644 | 37,525 | –10% | 131,822 | 131,898 | 0% |
| Volkswagen | 51,086 | 52,729 | –3% | 193,811 | 184,310 | 5% |
| Volvo Cars NA | 4,464 | 4,848 | –8% | 19,571 | 21,265 | –8% |
| 253 | 245 | 3% | 1,012 | 980 | 3% | |
| TOTAL | 1,285,446 | 1,184,641 | 9% | 4,974,534 | 4,652,248 | 7% |
24 Comments on “April U.S. Car Sales...”
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“April is Detroit month” (along with February and March), for those manufacturers a good year so far with above market growth.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2013/04/march-2013-u-s-car-sales/
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2013/03/february-u-s-car-sales/#more-479603
And it was not 3 years ago we were awash with those saying Chrysler would never sell more than 80,000 cars a month. Glad to see all those naysayers were incorrect on that one.
April 2013
Accord Sales: 33,500 – lowest incentives and highest retail% in class
Fusion Sales: 26,722 – Ford is historically huge in fleet sales
Altima Sales: 21,991 – cutting prices
Camry Sales: “top” 30,000 – seems iffy
Sonata Sales: 16,077 – down big time
According to the WSJ, the Accord was easily the best selling midsize in the 1st quarter, retail:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323335404578443504074481608.html
The Camry was about 25+% fleet in 1st qtr. Amazing.
Amazing indeed since Toyota has really turned up the incentives on the Camry with 5 years 0% finance (0% used to be very rare for them), a new national sales event (ToyotaTime) in addition to the usual annual Toyotathon. Then you can get extra money off 2013’s through Edmunds 9Altima and Sonata do this too).
Accord fully deserves it first place and does it well (retail, low incentives, although still cheap financing).
Would be interesting to know Fusion fleet sales %, it may not be as high as thought.
It would be interesting to know % of fleet sales for all brands/models. Is there a good online source for that info?
It would be very useful to have fleet % also included in this list. Toyota and Nissan do a lot of rental fleet sales as well as the Detroit 3 (however some Detroit models seems solely destined for fleet sales like the outgoing Impala).
I’ve been a big naysayer of Hondas for a while but their sales tend to be primarily retail and the fleet sales they do is mainly to government / corporate which still is often higher transaction fee than rental fleets.
At least the monthly GM figures freely available detail number of total sales and number of retail sales. So you can workout the fleet sales – not all fleet will be rental.
Take out fleet sales to corporate and govt. fleets and Ford’s fleet % is more in line with Toyota’s.
Hyundai has allocated more production to the Elantra which is why Sonata sales have dipped while Elantra sales have risen.
Accord is due it’s props. The new one is overall highly competent and decent looking. Plus it’s a Honda…..
Agree about the Accord, it’s quite a nice car. I could carp about the el cheapo door arm rests and the dust shelf in scratchable black plastic leading to the tunnel from which the nav unit glowers in old fashioned typeface.
But then I visited the Toyota dealer and sat in a new Camry. OMG. I fled for the front door of the showroom to escape, pausing only ten seconds to glance inside a Lexus ES. Argh! The hard plastic blight is spreading!
However, Accord sales are DOWN for April, year over year, by 5.3%. Which, judging by truck and SUV sales increases, means that more and more folk are living out their “driving a school bus” fantasy at 4 bucks a gallon.
The economy must be looking up.
Hmm…seems like the VW brand is losing steam. What happened to that amazing game changing Passat?
I predict luxury sales will be BMW, closely followed by Mercedes, then Lexus. The real drama will be the race for 4th between Audi, Acura, and Cadillac (I’m assuming we aren’t going to count Buick, right?).
Chrysler also looks to be comfortably in 4th overall with Nissan and Hyundai trying to take 5th from Honda. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chrysler was able to claw its way back to 3rd sometime depending on how well Maserati, Alfa, and Fiat sales do (and assuming we include these in its total).
Why not count Buick if you are counting Acura. they cover a similar segment – witness ILX vs Verano and TSX vs Regal.
I don’t think the Passat could be considered a ‘game changer’ other than to say that it was completely different from any other VW product sold in Europe wearing the “Passat” badge.
The big issues VW faces are:
1. Competition in the midize segment is fierce and between product like the new Accord, Fusion, Altima or Mazda 6, the new Passat’s only major selling points are a massive backseat and the TDI powertrain. Othwerise there is nothing exciting about it.
2. Ditto for the Jetta.
3. Tiguan is still sorely overpriced and under-contented for the market it is intended. I’d still take a CRV any day of the week over the Tig.
4. VW will be Golf and GTI-less for the next year here in North America. The big drop in GTI sales is likely a result of the enthusiasts putting their purchases on hold. I think Volkswagen made a big mistake by pre-announcing the Mark 7 Golf/GTI for the NA market more than a year before its on-sale date.
5. Audi is still holding its own, and if sources are to be believed, NA sales are partially supply limited especially for the Q5 and A6.
6. Audi is sorely in need of the A3 sedan and Q3 crossover. The sedan won’t be here until February-April 2014 and the Q3, at earliest, will be summer/autumn 2014. These two product will add another 20,000-30,000 units annually in North America.
In short, Volkswagen has the bigger issues. Audi will likely reach its sales targets within the next three years, but Volkswagen is goign to really have to give customers a reason, outside of slick marketing, to buy their product. Volkswagen’s push to de-content and match the Japanese on price is leaving them in a dangerous position where there is little incentive to buy the VW over the comparable Japanese offering.
Very good synopsis of VW’s problems. The midsize market is very fresh, but so is the Passat (and Camry which came out the same time). Less than two years old and newer than the Hyundai/Kia twins. SV is correct about fuel economy being a big problem for them.
As for point 4, even if VW had not pre-announced it enthusiasts would still know that the new GTi is available in Europe and read UK reviews a year ahead. That is the power of the internet.
Pretty good synopsis hreardon. The (well deserved)VW pessimist in me simply thinks that VW greatly over-estimated just how gullible the American public is to buy-up cheap, de-contented, mediocre cars simply because they have a German logo on the grill. Not sure if VW is aware, but most people that have even a passing knowledge of cars have heard at least a few horror stories of VW ownership. I have two co-workers that recently bought a Passat and a Jetta, and yes, they are both car ignorant. One buying the Jetta TDI over the far superior Golf TDI simply because it has a slightly larger rear seat that he hardly ever uses. The cheapness/crappiness of that car, particularly the interior is shocking for ANY brand, let alone VW.
Ubermensch –
Thanks. My take is that there were a few strategic decisions going on at VW that have led to the current product lineup:
1. The need to return NA operations to profitability
2. The perception that Americans want big, cushy cars (See: Camry)
3. The perception that Americans don’t care about soft-touch plastics and interior design as much as size and fuel economy
4. To make room in the lineup for Audi to move downmarket with the forthcoming A3 sedan
Overall, a lot of the decisions make sense but what I think Volkswagen failed to take into consideration is the ferocity and speed with which the midsize and compact segments have evolved. The new Passat and Jetta are aimed at Camry, Accord, Civic and Carolla buyers, and these new models have gained some good traction – but it looks like they’ve saturated that market.
VWs used to be more fashionable, hip and upscale compared to the competition. Now they’re Camcordorolla wannabes that do nothing to stir the soul.
I think they’ve definitely tried to move VW’s mass market brands downmarket to make more room (and profit) for Audi’s forthcoming A3 sedan and Q3 crossover, but VW will have to work very hard to give consumers a solid reason to choose the comparable VW over Honda or Toyota. VW needs to offer something unique in this space or risk becoming a me-too brand.
Both the Jetta and the Passat would benefit greatly from something better than the 2.5 five-cylinder which, while good on power, is not very fuel-efficient. The new 1.8 turbo should feature in both pretty soon, I believe. At the same time, a refresh and materials upgrade (especially in the Jetta) would do nicely. Add a more US-appropriate small SUV and VW should be in pretty good shape.
The new 1.8 will help, but as you mention, VW needs more than just a new powertrain to fix the problems with the Jetta and Passat.
The big growth will come in 2014-2015 with the upcoming Tiguan replacement. The new Golf and GTI will probably be much bigger sellers than in the past, the new Tig will follow the Jetta-program to better compete with the CRV and RAV4.
But even with new product they’re going to need to offer a lot more to US consumers to break them out of their current sales bracket.
I am wondering why there is not the normal snark that we have come to love and expect when the monthly figures come out. Didn`t happen in February or March either for some reason, what could it be?
Camry have become today’s 1992 Taurus, fleet queens, and ‘blow out sales’ to stay at #1. Also the dull car no one can find in a parking lot. Go to airports, and see all the Cam-rollas heading to ‘Rental Car Return’.
I drive past O’Hare Int’l daily, and many of the bar coded cars are Toyotas, Nissans, or Hyundais, along with the usual Avengers and Malibus. Not as many Fusions as 2010-12.
Accords are hot cakes, many new ones with dealer plate frames. I’ve never seen an Accord rental at OHare. Civics, yeah.
The Detroit 3 all gained marketshare against the Japanese for the first time in 20 years.
And yet no TTAC snark pointed in the direction of Toyota, umm.
The Big 3 gained marketshare, kind of. I don’t have model breakouts, but from what I can see, the uptick for Ford, GM and Chrysler is in pickup trucks, driven by recoveries in energy and construction industries buying fleet vehicles. I would be surprised to see that those 3 were gaining share in retail sales, let alone retail autos.
How did Toyota shrink in a market that grew 9%?