November Volkswagen USA Sales Enter Free Fall Mode

Industry-wide auto sales continued to expand in November 2015 despite a calendar quirk which shortened the selling month and a sharp 9-percent decline in passenger car volume.

At Volkswagen, however, after the scandal-ridden brand posted somewhat surprising year-over-year increases in September and October, November volume plunged 25 percent.

The loss of 7,843 sales compared with November 2014 was incurred largely by the loss of all TDI sales. In November 2014, 17 percent — or approximately 5,460 sales — were generated by vehicles with diesel engines. But Volkswagen couldn’t sell vehicles with diesel engines in November 2015.

Added to that was the transition period for the Passat, which is facelifted and refreshed for model year 2016. U.S. Passat sales plunged 60 percent to only 2,759 units in November 2015, a decline equal to 4,207 sales.

Volkswagen’s two saviors from October — the gas-only Tiguan and Golf GTI — performed better in November 2015 than in November 2014, but they couldn’t match October’s sales pace. Volkswagen set an all-time Tiguan sales record with 4,815 October sales. Tiguan volume in November jumped 88 percent to 3,907, year-over-year, but that total was down 19 percent compared with October. As for the GTI, which with 2,520 sales in October attracted more than four out of every ten Golf family buyers, sales in November grew 14 percent to 1,963 on a year-over-year basis, but slipped 22 percent compared with October.

Even cars like the upmarket CC sedan, which rose to a 14-month high in October, produced little benefit for the overall Volkswagen brand in November. CC sales last month slid 24 percent to 475, a loss of 203 sales compared with the prior month. After selling 1,508 copies of the Eos, e-Golf, and Golf R in October 2015, the trio contributed only 946 sales in November.

What happened to all the incentive-laden momentum? To put it simply, Volkswagen dealers ran out of the cars they were allowed to sell. Mid-way through November, Automotive News reported on a dealer which sold 80 Tiguans in October but only had five in stock in November. Nationwide supply at Volkswagen dealers tumbled to the lowest level in 12 months, and the little inventory dealers did possess took into account TDI models that were forced to languish in some far-flung corner of the dealer lot.

Incentives will lure buyers, particularly the Volkswagen loyalists who were offered especially tasty deals. But if consumers arrive with the intent to purchase or lease a car, and the car doesn’t exist, it’s no surprise to learn that they don’t follow through on their intent.

As a result, after October’s 0.2-percent uptick and a 14th-place finish among auto brands competing in America, Volkswagen ranked 17th among auto brands in November, 1,150 sales ahead of a rising Mazda but well back of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Lexus. Volkswagen earned 1.8 percent market share in the U.S. in November, down from 2.1 percent in October.

Elsewhere in the empire, Audi sales increased by a scant 0.4 percent to 16,700 units. Nearly one in five Audi sales was generated by the A3, which produced a 21 percent year-over-year improvement. Bentley dropped 42 percent and Lamborghini tumbled 43 percent (together they account for less than one percent of the Volkswagen Group’s U.S. volume). Because of decreased sales from every single one of its models, Porsche sales dropped five percent, a decline of 250 sales, the first year-over-year Porsche decrease since May.

As for that quirk in the calendar, November 2015 had only 23 selling days, two fewer than November 2014. Thus, while the Volkswagen brand’s volume was down 25 percent, Volkswagen’s daily selling rate was down by a somewhat less distressing 18 percent. Group-wide sales across the Volkswagen spectrum were down 15 percent, but the DSR was down 8 percent. Across the industry, Americans purchased and leased 10 percent more vehicles per selling day in November 2015 than during the same period one year ago.

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.