Vehicle May 2008 sales Percent change from May 2007
1. Honda Civic 53,299 28.3
2. Toyota Corolla 52,826 12.4
3. Toyota Camry 51,291 -1.5
4. Honda Accord 43,728 31.9
5. Ford F-series 42,973 -30.6
6. Chevrolet Silverado 37,020 -42.0
7. Nissan Altima 34,428 38.3
8. Ford Focus 32,579 53.2
9. Chevrolet Cobalt 26,702 19.2
10. Chevrolet Impala 23,803 -33.3
link
Race on Sunday...Originally Posted by Jim Wilke
“Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius.” -- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
More likely a reaction to $4/gal gas prices.Race on Sunday...
Lotsa folks trading in that 14-16 mpg Tahoe, Explorer, F150 or Silverado for that 25-30 mpg Civic, Corolla, or 4 cylinder Camry/Accord.
new sig pending
You reckon...
www.autoblog.com says MINI had this highest sales in the quarter while Hummer had the worst.
I don't recall Honda ever having the number one vehicle before. And I remember when Honda was blasted for not having a presence in the truck market. Checked the price on a Toyota Tundra lately?
I believe you're correct. For several years it was the F150 and Silverado at the top of the list (Ford most of the time, but Chevy right on their heels).I don't recall Honda ever having the number one vehicle before. And I remember when Honda was blasted for not having a presence in the truck market.
Camry and Accord fought it out for third place. Corolla and Civic right behind them dukin' it out for sixth (note Toyota lumps the Matrix in with Corolla sales).
In the long run, Honda may turn out to be the smart one with the Ridgeline instead of a big, 'real' truck. The CRV has posted at the bottom of the top 10 sellers.
To put a racing biz slant on it....will rapidly dropping truck sales impact Chevy/Ford/Dodge/Toyota $$ in Craftsman (soon to be ?) Truck Series?
These sales numbers are a little deceiving; when fleet sales are removed, it's even worse for the pickups. A Ford spokesman stated that if only private retail sales are counted, the Focus outsold the F-Series.
No GM in top 5.
No shock there. Crappy cars with crappy in class milage = crappy sales. No Chrysler in the top 10 as well for that same set of reasons. Even more so on the bad milage. Chrysler got caught with their pants down by the high gas prices. They have no small fuel efficient engine that's even a decent drive.
Word is that Hummer is going to the ash heap of history sooner than we think and GM is feverishly retooling plants and their focus toward the Green Market. Stay tuned because Cadillac may end up coming back as the car of choice for the austentaciously obnoxious set now driving Hummers.
A friend of mine has a dealership that sold Hummers in the Chicago area. He said toward the end, he would tell the customers that there was a good opportunity that they would be extremely upside down if they ordered a Hummer and tried to finance it. But, they bought it anyway. MSRP off of the lot for a small one was about $55,000. The moment it left the lot, it was worth under half. That was a year ago.
GM and Ford are panicking to catch up on the fuel efficient units. Foresight has never been the curse of the American auto industry.
On the gas price thing, I understand that the local Smart dealership has a 1-1/2 year backlog. What a dream as a car manufacturer.
Penske strikes again - he acquired the distribution rights when gas was around $2 or so, and now... goldmine.
btw, the rush from big gas users is astonishing. Many dealers won't even take the big truck based suvs in trade, and those that do roll the dice that they can get rid of them. People are left with the option of taking huge losses or just paying the price.
The landscape of the US highway is going to look real different real soon.
No shock there. Crappy cars with crappy in class milage = crappy sales.
3 of top 10 were GM products (Silverado, Cobalt, Impala). And, the difference between #5 and #6 was 6,000 units.
Lots more here:
linkU.S. consumers’ reluctance to buy new vehicles--especially low-mpg vehicles such as light trucks, SUVs and larger cars--accelerated in May.
Truck sales plunged and major automakers posted sharp sales declines for the month. But small cars achieved record volumes at several brands and the sales winners in May were either fuel-efficiency specialists--Suzuki, Volkswagen and Smart--or were car-heavy brands such as Honda, Nissan and Hyundai.
Total sales declined 10.7 percent to 1.40 million vehicles. For the year to date, sales declined 8.4 percent to 6.22 million vehicles.
May was the first month since 1991 that the Ford F-series pickup--the best-selling model in the U.S.--was outsold. In this case, four fuel-efficient cars beat the F series: the Honda Civic and Accord along with the Toyota Corolla and Camry.
“It’s a significant development, but it’s not surprising given the fuel price,” said Jim Farley, Ford group vice president for marketing and communications. “May was a watershed month. We are as an industry catching up with the breathtaking choices that the customers are now making.”
Four broad themes emerged from sales reporting for May.
-- Small and compact cars are selling well. Besides the Toyota and Honda having the four U.S. best-selling cars, other hot cars include the Nissan Altima, Chevrolet Malibu, and Ford Focus and Fusion.
-- Large trucks are not selling. The Ford F series lost 30.6 percent. Chevrolet Suburbans, Tahoes and Silverados are all down 40 percent of more. The Toyota Tundra is off 31.5 percent and Nissan’s Titan plunged 55.8 percent.
-- Luxury brands are not selling. Cadillac, Lincoln, Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, Porsche and BMW all lost between 5 and 40 percent of their volume last month. The best performer among luxury brands was Mercedes, which was flat in May.
-- Large and low-mpg cars are not selling. Ford’s Crown Victoria is off 22.2 percent and Mustang sales fell 44.9 percent. The Chevrolet Impala is down 33.3 percent and Corvette sales dropped 12 percent. Even the Toyota Avalon lost 33.7 percent of its volume.
Don't let the "SMART" car fool you either. In tests Car and Driver only managed 32 combined mpg out of this supposedly 33city/44hwy mpg car. And the thing runs on 91 octane, so it can't even run on regular cheap gas. You're better off with a slightly bigger better milage car like a Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris. Or hell even a Corolla or Hyundai Elantra.
32 mpg sounds pretty good to someone getting 10-12 now.
A buddy of mine in Indy has a Smart and says that the dealership is sold out - the only ones on the lot are there as a requirement of the manufacturer, gotta have one on display of each color and option package.
We have a 2005 Elantra, and we get 32-35 real-world MPG (city/highway mix), and yes, we're running 87 octane.
Eight years ago, I was hired as a consultant to Mercedes-Benz/Frieghtliner on a feasibility study about the future of their product. The President, Owner, and CEO of Freightliner and the board met with the Germans in Chicago to hear the findings. At that time, repos among their financed trucks were at a 32% clip. So, our group's effort was about stemming that tide and focusing on a decade from then.
A buddy of mine in Indy has a Smart and says that the dealership is sold out - the only ones on the lot are there as a requirement of the manufacturer, gotta have one on display of each color and option package.
So, I stood up and told them that low MPG semi-trailers focused on the long haul was not where they would want to be in five, let alone ten years. The future is in building smaller, more efficient urban dwelling trucks that can work from distribution points outside of urban areas. The long haul will be replaced by the medium haul from distribution point to distribution point. No one will want the product and long haul will be unaffordable at the current pace. Rail transport will replace the long haul in phases.
Hebe, the CEO, listened, then said, "So, you are saying we should stay with our current philosophy we've had for 40 years, invest in oil companies and repossession outfits?". The American exec toadies from Freightliner laughed...the Germans were unamused.
Diesel is at $4.70 a gallon, Freightliner has laid off 20% of their workforce each year for the past three years, and their repossession rate is double it was in 2000 when I put my neck on the line in that room. Oh, and no one will finance semi cabs or the trailers unless it is a corporate fleet and they tie their company stock to the transaction.
Mercedes divested from their portfolio on an investment basis after that and has a loose advisory role with Freightliner now. Some say the Chrysler deal was bad for Mercedes; The truth is the Freightliner deal that came with it was an abomination in comparison.
Need less to say, our plan was passed on by Frieghtliner. Mercedes paid us and let us retain the intellectual rights to the plan. The plan was sold a month later to Detroit Diesel and adopted by their approved manufacturers thereafter. By the way, Roger Penske owns (or did own at the time) Detroit Diesel.
What I learned the day nine white guys from Freightliner laughed at me was Americans of all professions need to imbrace foresight in their business thinking instead of settling for the what may have worked in the past. Roger Penske is becoming the exception to the rule in the auto industry and the Smart car is just another bit of proof of his foresight.
That's why I mentioned itWe have a 2005 Elantra, and we get 32-35 real-world MPG (city/highway mix), and yes, we're running 87 octane., I have a 2008 model Elantra. It's been consistantly getting 32 mpg week after week, and I'm running really shady 87 octane in it from non-name brand stations. And my girlfriend is a leadfoot because of the better mpg. She's tired of taking it easy like she was in her old Tahoe.
Hyundai is actually making its' way up the charts due to the MPH issue. I find it a head shaking moment when Congress talks about upping CAFE standards then it is knocked down by the oil industry.
My question to the auto industry in this country is this: why are YOU not defying the federal government and the oil companies by making the CAFE standards the baseline, not the top end, to aim for in your production?
Foresight is like precious gold in the American auto industry - rare.
Yup. Consumer Reports just rated the Elantra as the best compact sedan. And every review I've read says Hyundai is up to snuff with the best the equivalent Japanese mfg'ed cars can come up with.
Sadly not so with the American cars. And some of them are downright sad, like the Chevy Aveo. It's a sub-compact that only gets 25 mpg in tests. That's pathetic.
You're correct. For several years I would get a new car once a week from all the press fleets and the Hyundai's and Kia's of the world always tended to surprise me with their build quality and quality of materials. Unfortunately, GM products were a disappointment too many times. Most niggleing things, but enough to annoy.
On the bright side, all the companies make better cars now than anything available from the mid 70s to mid 90s.
"You know what the trouble about real life is? There's no danger music." - Jim Carey
Not Toyota. Their cars today are not nearly as good as what they were selling 10 years ago.
I will give them that. That said, I've had a slew of American rentals lately and have been less than impressed. Particularly the Chrysler products. I've had a Chrysler PT Cruiser, Chrysler Sebring, Dodge Avenger, Dodge Caliber, and Ford Focus in the last year for rentals and only the Focus would I classify as a "good" car for what it is (ie: a compact A-B car). The Chryslers, particularly the Sebring and Avenger were simply put... crap. Build quality was lousy, styling was pathetic, and the engines were simply put, lethargic. I know they were the base engines, but they couldn't get either car out of its own way. The Caliber wasn't much better. And the MPG on all of the other than the Focus was in the low to mid 20's. Not high enough for small 4 banger cars.
And Jim is correct about Toyota, their quality has plummetted in recent years. It's one of the reasons I didn't buy the Corolla when I was getting a good MPG car. Quality issues and shoddy warranty. I just hope Toyota's issues aren't stemming from being American made these days. They make the Corolla right up the highway from where I live in Fremont, CA.
My take is these are design issues, not assembly issues.
My recent rentals include a Ford Taurus, a Chevy Malibu a Nissan Rogue SUV and a Toyota Camry. The Ford and Chevy were pretty decent cars but the Toyota just felt cheap, lots of plastic and molded pieces. Felt like a late-80s Buick.
I don't know whether Jim is correct or not, but I still have my 12 year old Toyota Avalon, bought it new, only one repair in 12 years, everything except the radio antenna up/down still works, never a tuneup, currently gets 27-28 mpg consistently (has gradually gone up over the last 6-8 years!) and have always used the cheapest gas I can find, once got 30+ on trip from DFW to Colorado. Can't see any reason to buy any of the new stuff....
You are correct, Jim. Design is the culprit more than anything. Assembly has become so maintained, monitored, and refined that blaming it on assembly is no longer a valid excuse. Our cars are not designed for efficiency.My take is these are design issues, not assembly issues.
My recent rentals include a Ford Taurus, a Chevy Malibu a Nissan Rogue SUV and a Toyota Camry. The Ford and Chevy were pretty decent cars but the Toyota just felt cheap, lots of plastic and molded pieces. Felt like a late-80s Buick.
Funny: the assebly line and humans are honed for efficiency to make a product that is fundamentally inefficient in design. That rests squarely on management.
delete double post
Last edited by Roadster Fan; 06-04-2008 at 09:51 PM.
I can't agree with you that Toyota quality is not even close to what it used to be. Okay the Corolla might have slipped a little, in materials quality especially, but Corollas aren't Avalons or Camrys.
I lived a week with just about every model of every car made. Rental cars aren't a good comparison, and unless you're renting all the different models from every maker it's hard to tell the overall quality of a manufacturer.
Based on all Toyota models across the board they're still in the top 2 in my book for value, quality, and dependability. Overall, Toyotas still rank just behind Honda, and that's an opinion shared by probably 90% of the auto journalists I know.
I have no reason to sing Toyota's praise. Personnally, I like something sportier and lately I've had a BMW, Infiniti, and Corvette.
I've owned only one Toyota and it was excellent. It was a 2002 Sienna minivan and my wife put over 180,000 miles on it in 5 years. The only failure was a power sliding door motor at 160K. Other than that no repairs aside from scheduled maintanence and regular upkeep. Even in it's last year or two everyone who rode in it thought it was a couple of years old at the most, based on how solid it felt.
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