Cleveland Ohio – April car sales included just that – sales of cars, not just trucks. Most automakers posted gains in the low single digits, and while pickups, sport utility vehicles and crossover remained hot during the month, many car models were either up slightly or at least not declining as quickly as they had been in recent months.
Results by automaker include:
- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles A 26% rise for Chrysler-brand vehicles, thanks entirely to a more than quadrupling of 200 sedan sales; coupled with Jeep’s 20% rise that was fueled by the Cherokee; helped overcome weaker numbers from Fiat, Dodge, and Ram. Following double-digit gains earlier this year for most full-sized pickup brands, trucks were flat to down in April. Ram pickups gained 3%, the weakest growth of the year. Sales of Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Caravan minivans were also down sharply, a contrast to strong sales at Kia and Toyota, but that had more to do with downtime for retooling at the Canadian plants that builds the vans than a slowdown in ordering.
- Ford Ford’s car sales posted their first gains of the year, a 1% rise thanks to the new Mustang (up 82%), a small rise of subcompact Fiesta sales, and a smaller decline for Focus than in recent months. SUV and crossover sales were much strong with the redesigned Edge up 78%. Sales of F-Series pickups were down less than 1% as Ford has begun receiving new, aluminum-bodied F-150s from its Kansas City, Missouri, plant. The automaker expects trucks sales to pick up in the coming months as inventories rebuild following retooling for the new vehicle. Commercial vans had a great month at Ford with the combined E-Series, Transit, and Transit Connect lines up 16%.
- General Motors Only the Buick brand was down in April as Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC all posted gains – fairly strong gains for Cadillac and GMC. The clear winners at GM were crossovers and SUVs, such as the nearly tripling of Cadillac Escalade sales and 42% rise for Chevrolet Equinox models. Car sales were weaker than at other brands, but the subcompact Chevy Sonic posted a 14% increase; and sales of the Chevy Cruze, GM’s best-selling car, were down less than 4%, the smallest decline for the year. Chevy and GMC pickup sales were much stronger than at Ford or Fiat Chrysler. Chevy Silverado sales were up nearly 8% and GMC Sierra was up about 5%. At Buick, the only declining brand, the Encore crossover was up nearly 30%, but that failed to overcome losses for the larger Enclave crossover and the brand’s entire car lineup.
- Honda Honda’s sales were down about 2% for the month as the company’s bread-and-butter Accord sedan posted a 20% decline, its largest of the year. Compact Civic sales were up 3%, not enough to overcome slower Accord sales. Honda’s CR-V crossover posted a slight gain, and the Pilot SUV was up 28%. Company officials expect May and the rest of the year to be better as the new compact crossover, the HR-V, makes it way to dealerships. On the car side, the company’s biggest success was its Fit subcompact, up 56% from a year ago. At Acura, sales of luxury cars were up 29%, thanks entirely to the new TLX. All of the company’s older car models declined during the month.
- Hyundai/Kia Combined, results for Hyundai and Kia were flat from a year ago as that automaker is running and full capacity and has been unable to import more cars from Korea. Those production limitations prompted an announcement for a new Kia plant in Mexico last year, but it will be some time before those production bottlenecks ease. At Hyundai, sales most cars – the subcompact Accent, compact Elantra, and full-sized Azera, all gained, but the Sonata mid-size was down during the month. At Kia, Sedona minivan sales boomed, but the mid-sized Optima sedan was down a bit.
- Nissan Nissan’s Sentra compact was up 21%, the strongest results from many compact lines that showed their first signs of health in months. Still, car sales sagged as the Altima was off, and a new Maxima just went into production. The Rogue small crossover, up 45%, came within 325 vehicles of outselling the Altima to become Nissan’s most-popular offering in the month. If sales trends hold in May, that could happen this month. The Murano mid-sized crossover was up 73%.
- Toyota Smaller cars showed a renewed strength with the Yaris subcompact up 49% and the Corolla compact up 10%. But overall Toyota cars were down because of declines for the Prius hybrid line, the Camry mid-size, the Avalon full-size, and most of the Scion brand. Crossovers such as the RAV4 and Highlander, the 4Runner SUV, and the Sienna minivan all had good months. Toyota’s small Tacoma pickup posted a 13% jump, and its full-sized Tundra was up 5%. Overall, Toyota brand sales were flat, though Lexus was up nearly 12%, thanks entirely to the new NX crossover.
- Volkswagen Not quite an increase, but VW had its smallest decrease in more than a year with a less than 3% sales decline. Sales of the Golf line – Golf, GTI, Golf R, Golf SportWagen, and the electric e-Golf, more than tripled. The Golf is the first of VW’s cars designed on its new modular global design system to go on sale in the U.S. Company officials have said they’re confident that as older vehicles join the new platform, sales will increase. All other VW vehicles were down during the month, except for the Tourag large crossover which was up less than 4%.
Sources: FCA US LLC, Ford Motor Co., General Motors, Honda Motor Co., Hyundai/Kia, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen