Welcome to another Hooniverse Weekend Edition… I’m back after a couple of weeks off, so let’s get on with it. 2012 was an interesting year as far as car sales, and many car lines broke their own sales records this year. So, I thought it would be fun to see what models sold during the year we all thought were dead and buried, as well as uncover a couple of surprises. All the charts pictured came from the manufacturers media sites, but I couldn’t get model breakdowns from Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Jaguar/Land Rover, or some of the exotics, so they are not represented here. See the charts and my commentary after the break…
There was really nothing remarkable from Audi or BMW, so I’ll start with Chrysler/Fiat. Yes, Chrysler has an amazing year chart wise, with the ancient Dodge Avenger and Chrysler 200 selling almost 225,000 units combined (!), but there were a couple of surprises. Chrysler managed to sell 31 Calibers for December alone, with 10,000 going over the curb for the year. They also managed to sell off 490 Dakotas (last one built in August of 2011), and over 3,200 Nitros that were last built in December of 2011.
Moving on to Ford, and the one thing that was remarkable was the sales tally for the Crown Victoria… There were 546 sold for the month of December, and there were 4,429 sold for the entire year of 2012. Not bad for model that was last produced in September of 2011. Meanwhile, the Ford dealers managed to move 118 Rangers in December, and pushed off the lots a total of 19,336 for the entire year. Remember, these were last produced in December of 2011.
Over at the Lincoln division, dealers managed to sell 52 of the old Lincoln Town Car, with a full year sales total of 1,001. This was a car that was discontinued in August of 2011, without any fanfare from Ford whatsoever. Looking at the Lincoln sales charts, you have to wonder if they will still be with us next year.
Buick’s best selling car isn’t a car at all, but is in fact the Crossover Enclave. However, the buick dealers managed to sell ONE leftover Buick Lucerne in the month of December, and managed to offload 971 for the entire year. The Lucerne was discontinued in June of 2011.
Over at Cadillac, their dealer body managed to move FOUR Cadillac STS sedans during December, and moved 164 of these large RWD or AWD sedans for the year. The STS was discontinued in May of 2011. Along with the STS, the dealerships also managed to move 465 of the DTS during 2012, and that was discontinued that same time the STS was, May of 2011.
Chevrolet seems to have a few leftover models still sitting on dealer lots, because the Bow Tie division and their dealers moved THREE Chevrolet Aveos during the month of December, and finally got rid of 67 of these dreadful cars for the year 2012. The North American built Sonic replaced the Aveo in 2011. However, Chevrolet did have more “skeletons” in the closet, as they managed to off 11 Cobalts during the year, and 21 HHR Wagons. The Cobalt was replaced by the Cruz, and was last produced in June of 2010 (!). The HHR was last produced (for fleets only) in May of 2011.
Over in Europeland, and the one big surprise is from Mercedes-Benz. There was an actual Mercedes B-Class sold here for the month of December, with 29 sold during the year of 2012. I was not aware of any Mercedes B-Class vehicles available in the US, though they may have been sold in Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean. Other surprises from Mercedes include the fact that ONE CLK-Class was sold during 2012, and that Maybach managed to unload 50 cars for the year.
Volkswagen managed to move 560 Routans during December, which was more that the Eos (372), The New Beetle Convertible (516), or the Golf R (292), and still managed to move almost 10,500 of these non German minivans for the year (or about the same sales pace as the Touareg)
The only surprise from Volvo is that their retailers managed to sell 51 S40 sedans during 2012. These were last imported into the states for the 2011 model year. The soon to be discontinued C30 managed to sell more units that both the S80, or the C70 during the month of December.
From the Korean contingent, Hyundai managed to move 58 Veracruz CUVs off the lots for December, with over 8,200 being sold for the year. The Veracruz was discontinued on November 15, 2011.
Meanwhile, Kia’s minivan on life support, the Sedona, sold 711 units for the month of December, with over 17,500 moving off the lots for the year. This is by far the slowest selling Kia, by a wide margin.
The Japanese are not immune to phantom selling either. American Honda managed to move FIVE FCX-Clarity models for the year, as well as THREE leftover Elements. On the “green” side of the showroom, Honda managed to sell 19 Fit-EV models for December, 512 Civic Hybrids, 310 Insights, and 243 CR-Z Models. Together, they didn’t manage to match the 1,500 Ridgelines that moved off the dealer lots during the same time.
Acura is another story. The upscale dealers managed to move only 18 RL Models for December, and only 50 ZDX models. Yearly sales of the RL only managed to notch up to 379, while the Coups SUV ZDX managed 775. Our favorite Acura, the TSX Sport Wagon, only managed to sell 414 units for the month, and over 4,200 for the year.
Over at Mazda, there was a curious correction on their chart. Not only did they not sell a CX-7, or the long discontinued Tribute SUV, they managed to buy one of each back… I wonder what the story behind that was. Anyway, they did manage to sell 502 Tributes for the year (discontinued at the end of 2011), as well as 80 RX-8 sports cars for 2012.
Subaru managed to move 189 of the soon to be discontinued Tribeca SUV, and 497 BRZ models for December. I brought up the BRZ because it is the most talked about model in the Subaru lineup, but there was a new model that outpaced the BRZ, the XV Crosstrek, which moved over 3,400 units for December alone.
It seems that Toyota is selling quite nicely, thank you very much. It is just the other divisions that have a few surprises. Take Scion for example. The best seller is the Scion FR-S, companion to the BRZ. Scion managed to move 1,495 of these sports coupes for December, which is better than any of the other Scion models. Lexus managed to move TWO HS Hybrid Sedans for December, and the dealer body also managed to move TWO SC Coupe/Convertibles for the year.
Nissan has been very successful as well. The only surprise is the fact that the Cube is still being sold here, though down by almost 50% year to year. I am surprised that the Xterra, and the Armada are selling as well as they are, and that the Infiniti G Coupe seems to be selling better that the Nissan 370-Z sibling.
So what do you think of these sales numbers?
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