America's 10 Fastest-Growing Auto Brands In 2014 – Jeep Leads The Way

Excluding ultra-low-volume brands such as Maserati, Jeep was America’s fastest-growing auto brand in 2014. Both in terms of percentage growth and units added, no auto brand came within striking difference of the Chrysler Group/FCA SUV brand. Jeep sales jumped 41% to record-high levels of nearly 700,000 units, an improvement of more than 200,000 U.S. sales.

• U.S. Jeep volume climbs by more than 200K

• Five “Detroit brands” in top 10

• Jeep, Subaru, Audi, Nissan set annual U.S. sales records

Even without the additional sales of the Cherokee, Jeep was flying high in 2014. Non-Cherokee/Liberty volume was up 12% to 513,840 sales, which would have been the highest total for the Jeep brand since 1999.

Incidentally, the second-fastest-growing brand in America was another make from the same manufacturer, another brand which doesn’t sell passenger cars: Ram.

Sales of Ram trucks and commercial vans rose 27.5% to 469,139 units, the highest figure since Ram was separated from the Dodge division. The brand’s ProMaster and Cargo Van accounted for 29,350 of the Ram brand’s sales. Ram and Jeep generated 55% of FCA’s U.S. volume in 2014, up from 47% in 2013.

Other brands which moved far past their 2013 totals in 2014 included Mitsubishi (which was down 78% compared with calendar year 2002) and Subaru, which set an annual sales record. Lincoln volume jumped 16%, although non-MKC sales were down 0.4%.

Like Subaru, Audi set an annual sales record thanks to big help from their new entry-level models, the A3 and Q3. Lexus sales shot up by more than 37,000 units to a seven-year high. With record-high sales of the Altima, Rogue, and Versa – three of the brand’s four top sellers – Nissan set a U.S. sales record. The brand’s fourth-best-selling Sentra was up 42% to 183,268 units.

Buick and GMC brought General Motors to the list with 74,406 extra sales. (Chevrolet volume rose by 86,317 units, a 4.4% YOY improvement.) Buick set an annual global sales record in 2014; U.S. sales were down 47% compared with 2002 levels.

Flip the arrangement of this list, however, and we see other brands making headlines. Toyota’s percentage gains, at 5.8%, were modest, but a 5.8% improvement at Toyota equals 110,499 extra sales, year-over-year, enough to rank Toyota third in units added behind Jeep and Nissan.

Ranked in such a manner, Ram slotted in to the fourth spot, with Subaru, Chevrolet, GMC, Kia, Lexus, and BMW rounding out the top ten. Kia sales were up 8.4%, or 45,055 units, to 580,234 in 2014, the brand’s best-ever U.S. sales year. BMW also set an annual U.S. sales record with 339,738 sales in 2014, a 9.8% gain equal to 30,458 units.

And what of Maserati, America’s no-exceptions fastest-growing auto brand? Sales jumped 171% to a record-high 12,943 units, just 2830 units back of the Jaguar brand which Maserati outsold in and August, September, and October. Sales of Mercedes-Benz’s Smart division, meanwhile, rose 13% to 10,453, the third-highest-volume year in Smart’s seven-year history, but well off its first-year pace of 24,622 sales.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.