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With a single month remaining in 2017, automakers are ramping up sales efforts in the hopes of finishing the year on a high note. At this time of year, most stores deploy all the tools in their arsenal, from magical incentives to generous trade-in values, in a bid to compete with consumer dollars generally spent elsewhere during December.
The preceding month was solid but not stunning, leading some to openly wonder if this’ll be the first year since the Bankruptcy Days that total industry sales will be a few units less than the previous 12 months.
Absent of Nissan’s numbers as of this writing (thanks what the company described as a “significant IT systems outage”), the U.S. auto market held its ground in November. Assuming the duo of Nissan and Infiniti sold roughly the same amount of cars as this time last year, the entire market was virtually flat, off less than two-tenths of a percent to a monthly total somewhere in the ballpark of 1.3 million units sold in November.
[UPDATE] After fixing its IT snafu, Nissan reported strong sales for both the Nissan and Infiniti brands, bringing the total units sold for all brands who report their sales to just under sixteen million vehicles, year-to-date, in 2017.
Year-to-date, the story is largely the same, with – using the same assumptions about Nissan – the number of automobiles sold to American customers year-to-date in 2017 remaining largely the same as it was 12 months ago. We will update this post with complete numbers when they become available.
Notably, the Ford brand sold 14,284 more vehicles in November 2017 than it did during the same month in 2016, the only stand-alone brand to crack the 200,000 mark. Honda also saw major gains, recording an 8.2 percent increase in November sales versus the same time period last year. Having the CR-V and Pilot sell like proverbial hotcakes (up 25 percent to 32,206 and 57 percent to 12,189 respectively), and with the Civic posting continual YoY increases since July, surely explains Honda’s robust numbers.
According to the industry buffs at Kelly Blue Book, the average transaction price of a vehicle in America hit an all-time high of $35,870, no doubt driven by the manufacturer proclivity to finance new vehicle over extremely long-term notes. Most of those are, naturally, high(er) profit SUVs and crossovers.
While the total number of sales may be largely flat compared to this time last year, one can safely say the amount of profit raked in is greater — all thanks to all those high-margin units finding homes in driveways across America.
[Image: Ford Motor Company]
Man, it looks like the Giulia was a good move for Alfa! I wonder if they can keep the momentum up?
60 time nothing is still almost nothing
True but I suppose it’s better than just relying on the 4C.
Wonder if Big Serge has his bonus based on percentages?
It looks like Alfa will dethrone Camry as best selling car in US given how fast it grows. Sergio is a genius (just ask him LOL). Why FIAT still bothers with FIAT? Just shut it down and rebrand FIATs Alfa Romeo.
At this rate, Alfa is set to surpass Fiat sales next year.
How do you explain the imploding sales at Kia? Lack of -UVs?
All premium cars implode. See Cadillac.
KIA is a premium car??
Exactly my reaction. Cadillac is overpriced, oddly designed GM crap, while Kia is making reliable, mostly well-thought out, cheap cars with good warranties. I struggle to see any likeness between them at all.
Thats exactly my point. Kia makes more reliable and better designed and performing cars than BMW or Cadillac.
But…that reply doesn’t make sense related to what you said? Any of your two comments before.
Smart must be dumbfounded. While Mitsubishi’s on a tear…
How long until Smart just calls it quits in the US is my question. How few sales until it’s no longer worth it?
Does anyone have Tesla US sales numbers so we could see how many actual cars they are selling?
Behind the smoke and mirrors are more mirrors and smoke
I read they were selling over 10,000 units per quarter of the model S, I can’t find where I read that but its not insignificant if true. Weather or not it can be done and come anywhere close to breaking even is another issue altogether. It seems that there is so much animosity towards them on the car sites I read these past months.
Per goodcarbadcar they sold 5,100 last month with a YTD of 50,000. So that’s about the same as Porsche.
I have also ready that the monthly volume of Model 3s is still in the hundreds, that’s probably the key figure to watch – how quickly they can ramp up production.
You can see all EV sales here:
https://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/
Tesla’s numbers are always an estimate until their quarterly reports come out.
Insideevs’ estimates for US numbers are:
November 2017
Model S – 1335
Model X – 1875
Model 3 – 345
YTD
Model S – 22085
Model x – 18015
Model 3 – 712
The one to watch is the Model 3, because its annual production is supposed to far exceed the S and X, and it will be the future of the company.
Hey look at Acura made a gain. They have been pushing the TLX hard, either that or they sold some NSX. Probably just SUVs like everyone else.
Am I missing something, or is Toyota/Lexus ahead of Ford/Lincoln for the year? Nice. They’re the only keeper-car company left.
Giant maw FTW! (Even though Lincoln is up YTD while Lexus is down.)
That’s the best way to interpret the numbers to get past the fact that the Ford brand is ahead of Toyota (as well as every other brand). Excellent job.
Yea, I’m sure Toyota is secretly deeply disappointed that they have to resort to high revenue, high profit Lexus sales in order to beat Fo Mo Co.
On a serious note, why are ford’s numbers here not matching their press release? Was there a revision, or is this a TTAC error?
Toyota/Lexus sold 273K more cars this year than last year while Ford/Lincoln sold 27K fewer. Is that a good way to interpret the numbers?
Not sure if this scenario is repeated enough times to make a meaningful difference, but an acquaintance, VERY surprisingly, bought a Tundra over an F150, simply due to Ford requiring some sky high, pimped out $60+K trim level to fit radar cruise and related tech.
While Toyota and Honda are both busy making it standard, on everything from Ace-of-Base mopeds on up. Which it should be, as it’s cheap as heck to fit if you buy in OEM volumes, and the pedestrian detection and auto-emergency-brake feature requiring the same hardware, literally do save lives. The latter probably doubly so in a tall hooded pickup, although I doubt anyone has bothered to break those out for individual study.
Toyota is more like GM and VW than Ford which is a smaller company. Ford does not even have RWD car platform. Difference is pretty small though and Lincoln was mishandled for decades. Lincoln was the best selling luxury brand in 1989-90.
“Ford does not even have RWD car platform.”
Is the Mustang FWD or AWD then?
Mustang?
And anyways, most people buying cars, buy fwd. Besides, the most popular and profitable vehicle types right now are the crossover and suv, which Ford has no shortage of as that is what they are (smartly) investing in. Between Ford and Lincoln, I count no less than 9 currently available with at least 2 more on the way.
And all of this ignores the frosting on their cake that is the f series pickup.
don’t buy a Lacrosse. the heaters don’t work and they can’t fix it.
My heater works fine.
WHEN WILL YOU ADMIT IT, ASSUMING YOU DON’T YET KNOW IT?
GENERAL MOTORS MAKES GARBAGE (including your beloved Buick garbage, now made in China with 88% Chinese-sourced parts, exported to American-flag waving Buick Dealerships).
How many times do people have to be burned by the steaming piles of sh!t that the taxpayer bailed out, bankrupted GM, before they avoid at all costs!
*I had a Mercedes GLC with 2,300 miles on the odometer for 3 days this week on a biz trip and it was an unmitigated pile of steaming sh!t, also. It was *literally* 1 to 1 1/2 notches above a Nissan Rogue, with a cheap interior, overly stiff suspension, severely compromised rear cargo space, a very un-Mercedes like flexing chassis, a diesel loud POS 2.0T liter 4 banger, and idiotic controls (anyone who spends even 70% of the MSRP on either a Mercedes CLA [see my prior review] or GLC is a f’ing moron who would be better off with the equivalent Hyundai products). What an overpriced, cheap-feeling, cheap-sounding, turd shaped lump of sh!t of a vehicle, yet another of the Mercedes rentals I have had recently. The fact that Mercedes is using the same 2.0T in this GLCrap also in the C and *gasp* E class is SACRILEGIOUS AND BEYOND A MORTAL SIN!
FCUK YOU MERCEDES AND YOUR CLACKITY, PIECE OF SH!T VEHIClES, ALSO! STICK THESE DIRECTLY UP YOUR ARSEHOLE!!!
You really need professional help…..
Hey there, I like the Rogue.
Tell us how you really feel:)
“don’t buy a Lacrosse”
H-body > Epsilon P2
imgur.com/a/Kz8wO
@Buickman–Did you get a new Lacrosse? I haven’t heard of a heater problem before. One of my neighbors has a 2012 hybrid Lacrosse and it has been a very reliable car (beautiful car in champagne). I haven’t driven on but I have driven an Impala. I have a more favorable opinion of Impala since driving one. Both the Lacrosse and Impala are really nice looking and comfortable cars. I really enjoyed driving the Impala.
Every GM brand was down this month. Only GMC is up ytd. And think about all their brand new crossovers on the market! Not a good sign…
When will MINI dealers give up ??????
Move MINI back to BMW dealers
When will Fiat dealers give?
Combine them with Alfa, maybe Maserati?
Now that BMW has FWD crossovers (X1 and X2) what is the point of MINI?
It is like VW Beetle is a dead end. It will become all electric car and it will be end of it. Retro cars are like zombies means look is if they alive but actually are dead.