Refreshed for MY2015, the Toyota Sienna was America’s best-selling minivan in December 2014, the second consecutive month in which the Sienna topped its category.

• Chrysler’s vans are the two top-selling minivans

• Minivan sales hit six-year high

But 2014 was not the year of the Sienna, nor was it a year in which the Honda Odyssey could repeat as America’s best-selling minivan. Windsor, Ontario-built twins, the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan, ranked first and second, respectively, in U.S. minivan sales in the 2014 calendar year.

Together they earned 49% of the U.S. minivan market in 2014. That was up from 46% in 2013 when the Grand Caravan and Town & Country ranked second and third in the category. (Read More…)

Compared with the prior year, the Ford Motor Company lost one full percentage point of market share in the United States in 2014. While preparing to replace their F-150, Ford/Lincoln market share fell from 15.9% to 14.9% as F-Series sales predictably stalled in an expanding market and as Ford brand car sales slid 4%.

Poised to pickup Ford’s share was Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The company’s Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, and Ram brands boosted FCA’s U.S. market share from 11.6% in 2013 to 12.7% in 2014. Maserati, Jeep, and Ram were America’s fastest-growing auto brands.  (Read More…)

General Motors’ U.S. market share in the small/midsize truck category grew in December 2014 to 21.1% from 13.9% in November. According to inventory statistics from Automotive News, GM dealers had approximately 9400 Chevrolet Colorados and GMC Canyons in stock at the beginning of December.

• Tacoma and Frontier rising

• GM earning market share

• Small/midsize trucks account for 1/10 pickup sales

Yet a booming auto industry and a surging pickup market meant that even with this new level of competition from the GM midsize pickups, widely regarded as the modern members of the class, the Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier each posted 12% year-over-year improvements in December.

(Read More…)

Ford may soon have a new member in its royal family, as the 2015 Transit is asserting its dominance upon Flower Shop Lane.

(Read More…)