Chart Of The Day: U.S. Midsize Car Market Faltering, Leaders Earning Greater Market Share
Through the first five months of 2015, the Toyota Camry opened up a lead of nearly 36,000 units over the Nissan Altima in the race to end the year as America’s best-selling midsize car.
Aside from popularity, the Camry and Altima – as well as nearly every intermediate car on the market – share another factor in common: their sales are declining.
Year-over-year, U.S. sales of midsize cars are down nearly 4% so far for 2015. The Chrysler 200’s 133% year-over-year increase (and FCA’s 22% overall midsize improvement) stands out, not just in the category, but among the five leaders. Each of the four better-selling cars in the group are sliding, from the Camry’s 2% drop to the Altima’s 5% decline, the Accord’s 16% plunge, and the Fusion’s 7% decrease.
The second-ranked Altima is now 14,344 sales ahead of the third-ranked Accord, causing us to wonder if the real race is for third spot, as the above chart indicates. The Ford Fusion trails the Accord by only 520 units but has been outsold by the Honda in each of the last two months.
The Altima last outsold the Accord on a calendar year basis in 2011. If the current pace holds, 2015 will be the Camry’s 14th consecutive year atop the leaderboard. The five best-selling midsize cars in America accounted for 69% of the category’s sales through the first five months of 2014; 67% so far this year.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.
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$18K Altimas and $20K Accords... in this country of "bigger is better at all costs" Im surprised compacts are still so popular
Great, more SUVs/CUVs I won't be able to see around.