New Vehicle Market Share By Brand In The UK - March 2011

Ford was by far Britain's most popular auto manufacturer in March, out-selling its nearest competitor - that'd be Vauxhall - by 11,251. Sales of Ford, Vauxhall, and third-ranked Volkswagen all declined compared with March 2010. Whereas the Canadian and U.S. brand rankings don't see a luxury automaker appear until 13th and 14th, respectively, Audi was the UK's fourth-ranked automaker in March. Nevertheless, the Volkswagen Auto Group's market share dropped from 22.1% in February to 17.4%.

Meanwhile, though Blue Oval volume fell 14.9%, Ford market share grew 2.5 percentage points from February. General Motors lost four percentage points. 37.6% of all Ford UK sales in March were Fiestas; another 27.5% were made up by the second-best-selling Focus. 77.2% of all Vauxhall sales were Corsas, Astras, and Insignias. That leaves 9492 Agiras, Antaras, Merivas, and Zafiras, and perhaps some other things that end in aaah.

Posting the greatest year-over-year gain in March UK auto sales was Infiniti, up 683.3% to.... 47 total sales. Alfa Romeo sales jumped 66.4% to 2269. On the opposite end of the ledger, Ssangyong sales nearly disappeared, plunging 96.1% from 102 to 4. MG fell 84.6%, and Chrysler was chopped in half, dropping to 125 total sales. The overall UK market fell 7.9%, but was up 5.9% if 2010's scrappage scheme sales are excluded from the tally.

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New Vehicle Market Share By Brand In The UK - April 2011
UK New Vehicle Market Share By Brand - February 2011
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - March 2011
U.S. New Vehicle Market Share By Brand - March 2011
Canada New Vehicle Market Share By Brand - March 2011

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - March 2011

50% of Britain's 10 best-selling cars are presently on sale in North America. Among those five vehicles, however, there are significant differences between the European and North American versions. Take the top-selling Fiesta as an example. Available here as a sedan and 5-door hatchback with only one powerplant, the Fiesta in UK dealers is exclusively hatched (3 and 5-door) and is sold with six different engines. Ford posted a 16.9% year-over-year drop in Fiesta sales in March. Overall, Ford UK sales dropped 14.9%.

Marketing cars with numerous engine options is perfectly common practice Across The Pond. So while American auto enthusiasts get excited (and don't buy) the diesel-powered $44,150 BMW 335d, Brits can buy the tenth-best-selling 3-Series with one of seven diesels. Power climbs from 116 horses in the £24,560 316d through the 204 in the £29,840 325d up to the 286-horsepower £38,950 335d. The 3-Series trailed BMW's own Mini by 1301 units in March but was the best-selling premium brand car. Speaking of premium brands, BMW sold 17,987 cars in the UK in March, up 9.2% from March 2010. Audi sold 2749 more vehicles than BMW in the UK last month. Also, Mini found 9319 UK buyers in the 31 days of March.

Peugeot, Vauxhall, and Volkswagen all posted sales declines for their overall fleets. Excluding sales from last year's scrappage scheme, the UK auto market was up 5.9% versus the actual 7.9% decline. SMMT's Paul Everitt said March is, "traditionally the biggest month of the year," and added that, "the market remains on course to meet SMMT's forecast for the year with motorists buying increasingly fuel-efficient and low emitting vehicles across every segment."

Here then are the Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK for March 2011. If you have a source for the missing historical figures, leave a comment.

Rank	Car	Status	March 2011	Last Month	March 2010
#1	Ford Fiesta	↑	19,676	2404	23,681
#2	Ford Focus	↑	14,370	2483	17,989
#3	Vauxhall Corsa	↓	13,556	2617	15,088
#4	Vauxhall Astra	↑	10,704	2036	15,326
#5	Volkswagen Golf	↓	10,282	2709	9976
#6	Vauxhall Insignia	↔	7826	1842	n/a
#7	Volkswagen Polo	↑	7634	1570	7580
#8	Peugeot 207	↑	7189	n/a	8926
#9	Mini	↑	7404	n/a	7919
#10	BMW 3-Series	↑	6103	n/a	n/a

*Source: MTI, SMMT

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Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - April 2011
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UK New Vehicle Market Share - March 2011
Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America - March 2011
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Sporty Car Sales And Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - March 2011

There's three extra bits of info in March 2011's U.S. Premium Sporty Car chart. Estimates for three sporting car manufacturers, as generated by the Automotive News Data Center, are shown in the fullest sense available alongside the Porsche 911 (down 1% in March) and the Audi R8 (up 103.8% in March). Relatively speaking, Ferrari sells a lot of cars.

For those of us without $200,000+ to spend on a new 2-seater, we have the first Graph. Way out in front, the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang posted respective year-over-year improvements of .07% and 46.8%. Combined, the Camaro, Mustang, and Dodge Challenger - America's muscle car trio - performed better than all but 14 automakers in terms of overall March volume. Put another way, total American muscle car sales volume in the United States in March was greater than that of the whole Lexus brand, greater than the Chrysler brand, greater than Infiniti and Audi combined. Put another way, the Dodge Challenger wasn't half as successful in March as either the Ford or Chevrolet.

Oh, and Mazda sold 61 RX-8s. That's down 51.6% from March 2010. It's sad when such a sweet handler doesn't have the power or economy to compete; sadder still when it's attractive yet still in desperate need of a fresh design.

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Sporty Car Sales And Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - April 2011
Sporty Car & Premium Sporty Car Sales In America - February 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - March 2011
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - March 2011
Small/Entry Luxury Car & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - March 2011

Large Luxury Car Sales And Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - March 2011

Prefer to consider the Hyundai Equus a rival for the cars in this Graph of large luxury cars? At GoodCarBadCar.net the Equus is located amongst the midsize luxury cars on pricing and prestige grounds. In March, were the Equus located here instead of there, the large luxury car market would grow to 4867 units and the Equus's market share would be 4.95%, less than any other car in the segment. 

Instead, by boundaries which restrict the segment to more prestigious limos, the BMW 7-Series grabbed 22.2% of the market. Meanwhile, the Audi A8's market share grew from 9.9% in February to 12.1% in March.

Mercedes-Benz knows how to sell a big luxury sedan, for sure. But the SUVs... ah, now Mercedes-Benz really knows how to sell a big sport-ute. 2052 GL-Class and G-Wagens were sold in the U.S. in March, a figure which, together, out-performs the Cadillac Escalade. Sales of each Escalade variant fell in March. The EXT was worst off with a 6.3% decline.

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Large Luxury Car & Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - April 2011
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Small/Entry Luxury Car & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - March 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - March 2011
Luxury Auto Brand Market Share In America - March 2011
Small & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In America - March 2011

Small/Entry Luxury Car Sales And Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - March 2011

Poor Jaguar has it backwards. With lower prices, an automaker hopes to find higher volumes. Alas, the $72,700-$113,200 2011 Jaguar XJ - the Indo-Brit luxury automaker's flagship machine - easily out-sold the $52,500-$79,600 2011 Jaguar XF in March. XF sales plunged 60.4% year-over-year and are down 50.9% year-to-date when compared with the first quarter of 2010. Despite the XJ's 4530% increase over March 2010, the XF helped drag Jaguar down 11.1%, with a little assistance from the XK, also suffering from a serious bout of declinus salesus in March.

It's not all bad news among luxury cars, of course. The two most popular and most famous XF alternatives both posted substantial improvements in March. BMW 5-Series sales rose 55.6%. Mercedes-Benz E-Class sales grew by 1065 units.

Mercedes-Benz fared nicely with its smaller C-Class last month, too, although not well enough to catch the falling BMW 3-Series. C-Class sales were up 8.9% but still trailed the Infiniti G25/G37 (up 23.6%) and the invincible 3-Series (down 9.7%). The 3-Series is soon to be replaced. Even so, just that one BMW model was enough for BMW to out-sell Lincoln and Volvo.

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Small/Entry Luxury Car & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - April 2011
Small/Entry Luxury Car & Midsize Luxury Car Sales In America - March 2011
Luxury Auto Brand Market Share In America - March 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - March 2011
Small Car, Midsize Car, Large Car Sales In America - March 2011
Large Luxury Car & Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - March 2011

Small Car Sales, Midsize Car Sales, Large Car Sales In America - March 2011

The Honda Accord and Honda Civic came out of March 2011 looking like big winners in their respective classes. For the record, 441 of the Civic's 31,213 sales were Civic Hybrids. Overall, Civic sales were up 39% over March 2010, though Civic Hybrid sales fell 23.8%. As for the Accord, 2083 of its 33,616 sales were Accord Crosstours. Accord sales were up 15.4% as a whole, but Accord Crosstour sales dropped 19.5%. The Good Car Guy took a deep look at some of Honda's failures (and perceived failures) late last month.

Among the blue bunch, the competitive set typically called subcompacts, the Nissan Versa saw off a hard-charging Ford Fiesta to remain victorious in March. Versa sales dropped 19.4%, however, and are down 3.2% year-to-date. At this point in 2010, Ford wasn't selling the Fiesta. But Fiesta sales did rise 56.1% from February in a market that grew only 17%. 

The midsize car segment, though clearly the domain of Honda's Accord, the Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata, Chevrolet Malibu, and even the Toyota Prius, isn't immune to the wiles of the Subaru Outback. Sales of the Subaru SUVesque Legacyish wagon jumped from 7951 in February to 10,498 in March. This represents a 37.8% year-over-year bump. Moreover, the Legacy sedan was up 27.6%, adding 4450 to Subaru's total.

Just how hot was the Honda Accord in March? Combined sales of the Buick LaCrosse, Buick Lucerne, Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, Ford Taurus, Hyundai Azera, Nissan Maxima, and Toyota Avalon totalled 33,461 last month, 155 less than the total put up by the Accord. See it all in the Graphs below.

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Small SUV, Midsize SUV, Large SUV Sales In America - March 2011

Luxury Auto Market Share In America - March 2011

For graphic pleasure, and for the second month in what will hopefully become a long-running GoodCarBadCar.net chart, The Good Car Guy is displaying luxury auto brand market share as an extra on top of the U.S. Auto Sales By Brand list and the New Vehicle Market Share By Brand Graph. It's basically another way for Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Lexus to show how much of the premium sector is owned by.... Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Lexus. 

These three brands made up nearly half of all premium brand sales in March 2011. Acura, Cadillac, Audi, Infiniti, and Lincoln also come to play. Most of the others appear to be innocent bystanders. 

Mercedes-Benz market share among premium brands grew from 15.12% in February to 17% in March 2011. BMW was pretty much level. Lexus turned up the wick, heading from less than 13% in February to 15.6% in March. Acura suffered slightly but Cadillac lost plenty.

* indicates Automotive News estimate

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Luxury Auto Market Share In America - April 2011
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Popular Car Market Share In America - March 2011

America's popular vehicles were actually a little less popular in March 2011 than in February. The rest of the market made up 59.8% of overall sales; up from 59.7% in February. 4.3% of all new vehicles sold in the United States in March were Ford F-Series pickups. The Honda Accord, the best-selling car in America last month, was way back of the F-Series with 2.7% market share, still a pretty fair improvement for the Accord compared with February.

So far this year, through the first quarter of 2011, Ford has sold 126,627 F-Series trucks. While you'll be hearing plenty about Ford's ability to finally sell the fuel-efficient Fiesta in high numbers - a truth which I'm not encouraging you to ignore - what you won't necessarily hear about is Ford's ability to sell more Escapes in one month than they can sell Fiestas in three months; or Ford's ability to do the same with the Fusion. That doesn't make the Fiesta unsuccessful, not at all. The littlest Ford ranked among America's best-selling cars in March. But you don't see the Fiesta in this Graph, what with its .785% market share. What you do see are three Fords, all of which are bigger than the Fiesta and use significantly more fuel, and 17 other vehicles, all of which are bigger than the Fiesta, as well.

Has America embraced the subcompact culture of fuel efficiency and easy parkability? Based on this chart, er... no. Only one-fifth of the vehicles shown below will be displayed in GoodCarBadCar.net's Small Car chart. One of those cars, the Volkswagen Jetta, isn't really that small. The Hyundai Elantra is officially classified as a midsize car. Both are, however, capable of putting up stellar fuel economy numbers, as are the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, and Chevrolet Cruze.

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Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - March 2011

Every one of America's 30 best-selling luxury vehicles posted gains over February 2011 volumes, every vehicle except for three Cadillacs and one BMW. Although Cadillac SRX and CTS sales improved dramatically in year-over-year comparisons with March 2010, the declines from February were 23.3% and 35.3%, respectively, in a market which grew 17%. Overall, slightly less then one-third of the 30 best-selling luxury vehicles in America posted falling year-over-year sales, the BMW 3-Series' 9.7% (explainable) drop sticking out like a sore thumb with red font in the #2 spot.

17 of the 30 most popular luxury vehicles in March 2011 were traditional passenger cars. You might say the $29,120 2011 Lexus CT200h, a hatchback available only with a hybrid powertrain, is the least traditional of those 17. The majority may be cars, but the victor is the Lexus RX350/Lexus RX450h luxury crossover family. RX sales rose 6.7% over March 2010; up 31% from February, way out-performing the overall market.

Just about 1800 units back of the RX is the increasingly successful Infiniti G. Year-over-year, sales of the G jumped 23.6% in March and were up 27.6% from the previous month. 1448 of the G's 7009 March 2011 sales were G37 Coupes. Along with the G25 and G37, there are seven other Japanese vehicles in this group of America's 30 favourite luxury autos. Half the cars in this list wear European badges. That leaves one Korean and six Detroit machines.

Rank	Car	Status	March 2011	Last Month	March 2010
#1	Lexus RX	↔	8600	6567	8060
#2	BMW 3-Series	↑	8503	4872	9413
#3	Infiniti G	↑	7009	5492	5671
#4	Mercedes-Benz C-Class	↑	6542	4479	6006
#5	Mercedes-Benz E-Class	↑	6107	4203	5042
#6	BMW 5-Series	↑	4491	4212	2886
#7	Cadillac SRX	↓	4221	5502	4090
#8	Acura MDX	↑	4113	3845	3281
#9	Acura TL	↑	3995	2447	3917
#10	Cadillac CTS	↓	3904	6033	2870
#11	Lexus ES	↑	3732	2598	3860
#12	Audi A4	↓	3428	2770	3058
#13	Lincoln MKZ	↑	3138	1775	2456
#14	Lexus IS	↑	2956	2081	3157
#15	Acura TSX	↓	2810	2794	3072
#16	Mercedes-Benz M-Class	↑	2792	1924	2154
#17	Hyundai Genesis	↓	2664	2441	2145
#18	BMW X3	↔	2648	1987	716
#19	Lincoln MKX	↑	2267	1636	2032
#20	Lexus CT200h	↑	2199	-----	-----
#21	Audi Q5	↑	2083	1539	1701
#22	BMW X5	↓	2010	2646	2536
#23	Cadillac Escalade	↓	1982	2202	2094
#24	Mercedes-Benz GLK	↓	1963	1853	2333
#25	Mercedes-Benz GL-Class	↔	1953	1472	1881
#26	Volvo S60	↑	1952	1247	1
#27	Cadillac DTS	↓	1580	1512	2146
#28	Audi A5	↑	1388	1142	1675
#29	Land Rover  Range Rover Sport	↑	1374	984	1033
#30	Volvo XC60	↓	1369	1184	1263

Source: Manufacturers And Automotive News Data Center

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Large Luxury Car & Large Luxury SUV Sales In America - March 2011