U.S. Auto Brand Sales Results – March 2015 YTD: Not As Bad As Expected

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13 Comments on “U.S. Auto Brand Sales Results – March 2015 YTD: Not As Bad As Expected...”

• 	APaGttH April 1st, 2015 at 5:06 pm
  Scion down 17% year to date, 25% month to month comparison. Why Toyota, why? Why are you putting any more resources into this failed experiment??? Cadillac’s next advertising campaign is going to use a Bruce Springsteen song. “I’m going down, down, down down, whoa, I’m going down, down, down…” How do smart dealers stay in business? Volkswagen shall rule da vorld! Vee vill have the largest market share the vorld has ever zeen! It will be a glorious rule! A vorld of order! Of German engineering! One vorld! Vat? One moment… Ja…ja….ja….nein. VAT?!? Dummkopf! Nein! Nein! Nein! Nein! Nein! VAT?!? Ja. Ja artz? Tut mir Leid. Ja sir. Ja sir. Nein sir. Nein. Ja sir. Ja. I have been invormed that ve vill rule the vorld still, except North America, which can go zuck it as var as vee are concerned. Of all the makers Honda impresses me the most. A more limited line up than the perceived competition (no BOF vehicles like Toyota, Nissan or Detroit), no pickup truck midsize or larger, limited line up compared to Toyota, Nissan, GM or Ford in particular. They continue to hold the line selling what buyers apparently want.
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  • 		28-Cars-Later April 1st, 2015 at 5:09 pm
    	Scion is another one of those things I’d love some anonymous insider opinion about.
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  • 		TMA1 April 1st, 2015 at 9:48 pm
    	Makes you wonder if Mazda knew what they were getting into. “What do you mean you’re going to sell it with a Scion badge?” They probably had reasonable hopes of moving some units with the Toyota logo on the hood.
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  • 		highdesertcat April 1st, 2015 at 10:05 pm
    	Scion is one of those niche brands. But what surprised me was that both Ford and GM had a small decline while Fiatsler actually saw a small increase in sales. What I find enormously encouraging is that the projected SAAR is still over 17-million. That’s gotta be good for America’s economy. This really is a great time to buy a new car or truck, no matter what the buyer’s preference.
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    • 		raph April 1st, 2015 at 10:42 pm
      	Mustang seemed to have had a good month at nearly 12.7k units soundly beating Camaro at just under 6k units and Challenger just under 7k units. It would be interesting to see what portion of those Mustang sales were pent up demand vs. conquest sales.
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  • 		derekson April 2nd, 2015 at 3:46 am
    	VW’s problem remains old product (besides the new Golf/GTI and the ever-so-subtly refreshed Jetta everything in their lineup is what, 3-5 years old at this point?) and a lack of CUV/SUV products that aren’t positioned as luxury products. It will be interesting to see just how far VW’s sales can plunge before they get the refreshed Passat, new Tiguan, and new 3-row CUV out onto the market in the U.S.
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    • 		bomberpete April 2nd, 2015 at 11:49 am
      	VW’s reliability reputation, service technicians and dealers also stink. Even with good, reasonably priced product, those are tough obstacles to overcome. Yet somehow Audis are better products overall. Go figure.
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  • 		heavy handle April 2nd, 2015 at 8:09 am
    	“How do Smart dealers stay in business?” The local ones are also Mercedes franchises. The lone Smart on display doesn’t take-up much space on the showroom floor (or in the back lot). To be fair, this is the run-out for the current model, and the next model is a huge improvement. I’m sure dealers haven’t ordered much stock of the old car.
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  • 		hifi April 2nd, 2015 at 2:40 pm
    	Honda impresses you? Clearly you’re not factoring the unimpressive Civic, Crosstour, the Ridgeline, the FCX, the Fit or the entire Acura brand. If you’re only talking about the Accord, the Odyssey and maybe even the CRV, then yeah, Honda’s real awesome.
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    • 		bd2 April 3rd, 2015 at 5:30 am
      	And while Honda traditionally has done very well with its core models (not so much with its niche models like the Crosstour, Element, CRZ, etc.), even the Accord and Civic have seen falling sales as the competition has put pricing pressure on Honda.
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• 	northshorerealtr April 1st, 2015 at 10:12 pm
  Ok, I’ll ask the dumb question–why is March 2015 a shorter sales month than March 2014? I’d first thought that it was because of Sundays, since in most places Sundays aren’t counted as sales days; both March 2014 and 2015 have 5 Sundays. What makes the difference in the sales months? And, if March 2015 is a shorter month, does that also make the YTD figures suspect? (YTD covers from 1/1 of each year, right? Were either January or February also “short months” in either year?
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  • 		sunridge place April 2nd, 2015 at 4:56 pm
    	When the last day of the month falls on a weekend, sales from the previous month carry through close of business on the first Monday. So, March 2015 sales actually started on March 3rd vs March 1 last year. March 2014 also had five selling weekends versus four selling weekends in March 2015.
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• 	hifi April 2nd, 2015 at 2:22 pm
  None of this makes any difference unless you consider the average transaction price. Most brands are attempting to do what Cadillac is doing. I am not as surprised as some people are that Cadillac’s sales have declined. That was intentional. The average transaction price is considerably higher, and they are getting more affluent customers, and much fewer entry level customers. None of the information above matters without knowing if the overall price is increasing or not.
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