Chart Of The Day: Month After Month, Most Midsize Cars Are Posting Declining U.S. Sales
As U.S. sales of the best-selling midsize car — and best-selling car overall – declined 3% during the first-half of 2015, one would assume that an opportunity opens up for its nearest rivals. But while the Camry has fallen slightly, the Honda Accord tumbled 16% and the Nissan Altima slipped 3%.
Surely then, the second tier of candidates would make real headway? No, in the midst of this convenient moment, the Ford Fusion is down 7%. In fact, on a year-over-year basis, Fusion sales have declined in eight consecutive months.
It’s not just the Fusion, of course. The Toyota Camry, Hyundai Sonata, and Kia Optima have posted four consecutive U.S. sales declines. The Volkswagen Passat and Honda Accord have both decreased in five consecutive months. After four consecutive months of decline, Nissan Altima sales increased only marginally in June.
Overall, the core group of midsize cars is off 2014’s pace by 4% through the first-half of 2015. Compared with the first six months of 2013, sales are down 7%. The Camry leads its nearest rival, the Altima, by 43,785 units through six months, an even bigger lead than the 37,262-unit gap it had built up at the halfway point last year.
We’ve included some segment outliers in the chart in the interest of greater disclosure. U.S. sales of the aged Volkswagen CC, for example, have tumbled in each of the last 23 months.
Meanwhile, the top three midsize cars’ small crossover siblings are on the rapid upswing. Toyota RAV4 sales are up 23% this year and have increased in 27 consecutive months. Nissan Rogue volume is up 36% in 2015; Rogue sales have improved in each of the last 11 months. The Honda CR-V, America’s top-selling utility vehicle, is up 5% this year. CR-V sales have improved in eight of the last ten months.
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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American women want to ride up high. American men are afraid of their wives. This chart is simply a convergence of those two facts. There really isn't anything to warrant so much bickering...
Well, when the average price of midsize family cars drives up into over 30k in price, and the average worker is making $4k more than they earned in 1970 in adjusted dollars, a large amount of families in the US have been priced out of the market. They are just too expensive for what they are.