Frosty 2012 Sales Start For Some Interesting Cars

The Beetle sales numbers might be weak, but when compared to the Golf's numbers(these numbers are for the US only), the Beetle is selling better.

With such low numbers, it's amazing VW keeps the Golf on offer over here. Even the Jetta Sportwagen (VW spelling) sells in greater numbers (against both the Beetle and Golf in 2011 YTD, but January sales were down for the wagon).

Honestly, I think the flower vase in the previous gen did more to limit its demographic than even the Fiat JLo ads.

The Jetta held a solid 50% of Canadian sales for 2011, but the Golf is pretty strong, too. VW purists don't buy the new Jetta.

Haven't seen numbers, but the new Explorer appears to be a total sales dud here, just like its SUV predecessor. 5$ gas doesn't explain it all, as the GM Lambda trio is doing well.

Something of note regarding the Corvette, Escalade, Equus, MB SLK, GT-R, MB R Class....these vehicles all start at prices over 50k. These cars are not exactly volume sellers.

The Nissan Titan and the Suzuki Kizashi on the other hand....OUCH!

The article says that 629 Corvettes in a month is bad?? 629 two seat sports cars that cost at least $50k? That seems great especially for a six year old design. I think if you told Chevy "How about a month where you sell twice as many Corvettes than Miatas" they would be pretty excited.

-Rod

The CRZ is a puzzling car. I think it is fun to drive. It's a momentum car but I think if you drive it like a sports coupe the gas mileage has got to suffer. I like the idea of a turbo 1.2 or 1.5.

"Honda CR-Z: 363 (just stick in a turbo 1.8-liter, Honda, and forget the hybrid stuff)"
Agreed. They missed the mark with this (don't try mixing efficiency with sport, you'll offend both camps).

"Chevy Volt: 603 (A "fire sale" sounded like a good idea at the time...)"
Ha ha. They halted production and did a recall. Sales were much higher in Nov/Dec and will probably pick up again. And hey, decent for a 40 grand compact - on par with the Nissan Leaf.

"Chevy Corvette: 629 (the C7 had better be compellingly different – and we don't think it is)"
Seeing as most are selling for 60-70k, that's pretty good.

"Hyundai Equus: 292 (Korea's Maybach?)"
I don't think Hyundai ever intended the Equus to be high volume.. just to gain attention and reputation.

"Mazda MX-5 Miata: 306 (Is one of the industry's most glorious runs winding down?)"
Seemingly so. Maybe everyone who wants a Miata already has one by now.

"Mitsubishi Lancer: 1,016 (A decent compact car that deserves better)
Suzuki Kizashi: 253 (One of the market's best cars that nobody buys)"
Poor Mitsubishi and Suzuki.. very few people know these cars even exist. There's just so much competition out there.

"Lexus CT 200h: 1,025 (Wish we had the money Lexus spent promoting the "dark" hybrid)"
Doing much better than the HS, at least.

"Mercedes SLK: 238 (Starting to see a theme here?)"
Yes, that it's January.

"BMW 1-Series: 422 (Where are all those buyers begging for a reincarnation of the old 2002?)"
Probably realizing that they want more room and features, after all.

"Cadillac Escalade: 985 (We can only hope)"
Pretty high, considering the Yukon and Tahoe are practically the same.

"Nissan Titan: 1,306 (Something's gotta give)"
They could probably stand to do better marketing.. GM, Ford, and Ram are all over big truck promotion. The Frontier is doing better, though.

"Toyota FJ Cruiser: 708 (We remember some desperately heavy breathing about this one)"
Being discontinued, right?

(blueprint1) "Haven't seen numbers, but the new Explorer appears to be a total sales dud here, just like its SUV predecessor."

They sold 9,966 in the US last month, up 35% from 2011. Not a dud.

@xprojected

Help me figure out how US sales for the Explorer is a retort to blueprint1's comments about Canada sales.

What is the source of this data? I'd be interested in seeing a listing of some of the other cars not listed.

(Waving stick) I remember when the FJ Cruiser first came out and dealers were marking them up..
Now, for the same money as a Wrangler you get a car with less powah, terrible visibility and - a turn around - a much worse interior.
The FJ was pretty cool compared to my 2002 Wrangler, but a dud compared to the 2012 Wrangler.

@stovt001"I forgot the new Beetle was already on sale. VW really did drop the ball on that launch."

The dealer that I talked to recently indicated that the marketing push for the Beetle hasn't started yet. A few units trickled onto their lot with very little fanfare, but they're expecting more deliveries and a more concerted campaign soon.

@tvhasselhoff "With such low numbers, it's amazing VW keeps the Golf on offer over here. Even the Jetta Sportwagen (VW spelling) sells in greater numbers (against both the Beetle and Golf in 2011 YTD, but January sales were down for the wagon)."

You need to combine the Golf and GTI numbers to get a more accurate picture, since they are essentially the same car and come off the same assembly line in Germany. In January, they each sold roughly the same number of units for a combined total of ~2.6k. And I don't see anyone questioning whether VW should continue to sell the GTI here.

The Jetta wagon is an anomaly because about 90% of the units sold in the US are the TDI models. For whatever reason, consumers looking at that model want the TDI engine.

I don't think the January numbers are a good barometer for how the Beetle will eventually perform. VW has done minimal marketing so far, and supposedly the big marketing push and production ramp up have yet to start.

Volkswagen splits the GTI and Golf sales, with the GTI showing a higher take rate. They might be the same chassis, but buyers are more enamored with the GTI, despite the higher price tag. If buyers thought they were the same car, they wouldn't be ponying up for the higher sticker price over the Golf.

I haven't seen any numbers indicating a 90% sales rate of TDI for wagens, especially since TDI sales have seen a dip for VW, so I can't comment on that accuracy, but the wagon numbers show better than Golf.

Volkswagen splits the GTI and Golf sales, with the GTI showing a higher take rate. They might be the same chassis, but buyers are more enamored with the GTI, despite the higher price tag. If buyers thought they were the same car, they wouldn't be ponying up for the higher sticker price over the Golf.

I haven't seen any numbers indicating a 90% sales rate of TDI for wagens, especially since TDI sales have seen a dip for VW, so I can't comment on that accuracy, but the wagon numbers show better than Golf.

Honda Ridgeline sold fewer units in January than the Nissan Titan despite a sales increase of 45% for the Ridgeline.
1,245 sold for Ridgeline.

These are really interesting numbers, but I think it's also important to keep in mind the original projections that each brand had for these cars. That makes some of these numbers look even more absymal (Honda wanted the Accord Crosstour to sell 40K units/year), but others less so (Lexus projected CT at 12-15K per year, and this is about there.)

I'm interested to know how many SLKs MB expects to move - I feel like when this car came out in the late 90s, they were everywhere (Yes, I do understand that was a different time), but this is a roadster I always forget about.

Hyundai has said from the begining that they expected to sell between 2500-3000 per year. The Equus is made in Korea and they are selling them as fast as they make it into the showroom.

Among non-roadster/convertible vehicles on here with sales below 500, the Equus and R-Class are the only two with inventories well below 1,000 right now per that Classified Ventures site (since Edmunds doesn't list nationwide inventories). Equus is the only one that is carried by only a small fraction of its brand's dealers. It's also up over last year and would be on track to hit 3,500 this year if it only sold the same all year long as it sold in Jan., which by the way exceeds any one YEAR's sales for the Maybach in the U.S., much less Hyundai's projections. In fact, from Jan '11-May '11, Equus sales exceed Maybach sales from 2003-2010. Somehow, I'm not seeing the connection.

Oh, let me add that you can throw in 2011 sales in there, too, and it'd still be true. In fact, NO Maybach sales were reported at least since Aug. of last year. Maybe even well before that. I got tired of going through pressers to see.

Oh hell, I couldn't resist. From Dec. '10-Jan '12, Equus has outsold Maybach and Phaeton combined since the latter two were introduced into the U.S. market.

"BMW 1-Series: 422 (Where are all those buyers begging for a reincarnation of the old 2002?)"
Bring the hatch over already!!

Sales for most brands and models available here for Jan 2012.

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f78/industry-reports-january-2012-sales-108616/