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

U.S. sales of the Nissan Versa took off in September 2011 after Nissan made a big deal of the new Versa sedan's legroom, headroom, and low, low price. Nissan is attempting to persevere with the old Versa hatch for now, but the $10,990 sedan helped Nissan post a 68% year-over-year Versa volume increase. 

There's no doubt that subcompact customers would be better served by the 2012 Hyundai Accent 5-door or the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic hatchback than the unfortunately ugly Versa sedan. Both those cars feature a higher base price, something Versa customers clearly can't get over. It's not as though there's any overwhelming reason to choose the Versa besides its price. 

The Versa's more expensive compact sibling is the Nissan Sentra, sales of which were also on the upswing in September 2011. Sentra sales were high enough to make it the 19th-best-selling car in America last month. However, aside from the Versa, seven compact rivals sold in greater numbers.

CLICK ANY CHART FOR LARGER VIEW

If the Versa is the story of the small car category, the Nissan Altima's 22% improvement and 24,356 September sales makes it a candidate for top newsmaker in the midsize class. Sure, the Toyota Camry found more buyers - it almost always does - but while we wait for the 2012 model to bring Camry sales back up to par, September's 5918-unit loss doesn't merit the Camry greater attention.

The brand new Kia Optima is beginning to have a more serious impact on the category. Sales jumped 206% in September, although the month-to-month gains from August measured just 34 units. The Optima accounted for 17% of all Kia U.S. sales last month. It was the brand's third-best-selling model.

Sales of the Optima's platform-mate, the Hyundai Sonata, slid 12% in September. It's not crazy to think that the Optima's success comes at the expense of falling Sonata sales, though the theory may prove inaccurate. Moreover, the Sonata remains Hyundai's best-selling model and was responsible for nearly one-third of the brand's September sales.

THE ABOVE CHART MAY SAY AUGUST, BUT IT REFERS TO SEPTEMBER SALES

A very negative picture could be painted in regards to mainstream large cars and their suffering September sales. Ignore the premium-badged and defunct Cadillac DTS and Lincoln Town Car for now. Set aside the dying Buick Lucerne and the police-only Chevrolet Caprice, as well. 

Buick LaCrosse sales were down 8.5% in September. The Ford Taurus was off by 38%. Toyota Avalon sales slid slightly, down 1.2% from September 2010 levels. Dodge reported a 23% decline. 

That leaves the Chrysler 300 - and its impressive 50% jump - and the Nissan Maxima's 26% improvement. Thing is, the 300 is down 20% year-to-date. The Maxima is down 7% this year.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Small Car Sales In America - October 2011
Small Car Sales In America - August 2011
Midsize Car Sales In America - October 2011
Midsize Car Sales In America - August 2011
Large Car Sales In America - October 2011
Large Car Sales In America - August 2011
Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America - September 2011

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

Ever since March the Ford Fiesta has been the most popular car in the United Kingdom. That's not surprising, given how the Ford Fiesta ended 2010 as the best-selling car in the UK. In September 2011, the Fiesta's lead over its big brother, the Focus, was 893-units strong. 

Year-to-date, the Fiesta is ahead of the Focus by more than 9500 sales. 20% of the Fiesta's sales this year came about in September, an immensely popular month for buying cars Across The Pond.

There are only six automakers represented in this list of the UK's top-selling cars. The three Vauxhalls represent 86% of all Vauxhalls sold in September 2011, despite forming only 43% of the brand's lineup. 78% of Volkswagen UK's September sales can be found in this Best Sellers table. There are 12 conventional Nissan nameplates on the market in the United Kingdom; 40% of Nissan's sales this year came from one model, September's 10th-best-selling vehicle, the Qashqai.

Even more astounding is the dominance achieved by this group when compared against the rest of the market. 30.4% of all new vehicle sales in the UK last month are represented by the ten vehicles in the table below. The Fiesta is basically America's Ford F-Series: 4.7% of all UK sales in September were Fiestas, a figure that's comparable to the F-Series' 5.1% U.S. market share.

These are the Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The United Kingdom from September 2011. Check out August's list here.

Rank	Car	September 2011	September 2010	Year-To-Date
#1	Ford Fiesta	15,647	19,078	77,198
#2	Ford Focus	14,754	10,100	67,672
#3	Vauxhall Corsa	14,339	14,249	60,959
#4	Volkswagen Golf	10,628	7228	50,013
#5	Vauxhall Astra	10,462	n/a	49,042
#6	Volkswagen Polo	8607	n/a	36,655
#7	Vauxhall Insignia	7323	7250	38,386
#8	Mini	6903	7187	28,097
#9	BMW 3-Series	6352	n/a	33,650
#10	Nissan Qashqai	6068	n/a	30,763

Source: MTI & SMMT

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - October 2011
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - August 2011
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - September 2010
UK Auto Sales By Brand - September 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - September 2011

UK Auto Sales By Brand - September 2011

Not unexpectedly UK auto sales volume skyrocketed in September. From August levels, the United Kingdom's most popular brand, Ford, saw its sales rise 407%. 

Year-over-year, however, Ford was down 6.6%. And as you'll see in the pie chart at the bottom of this post, Ford may be the most popular individual brand but still loses out in market share terms to the massive Volkswagen Group. 

Volkswagen, including its subsidiaries and Porsche partner, saw its market share fall from 21.9% in August to 18.8% in September 2011. Sales of the Volkswagen brand were up 18.4%, year-over-year. Audi reported a 17% improvement. Skoda was up 27.2%, SEAT was up 22.9%, Porsche jumped 52.6%, and little ol' Bentley was down 4.3%, or six units. During a month in which 51% of brands reported declining volume compared with September 2010, only 16% of the Volkswagen Group's brands did so. Audi was the UK's best-selling premium brand in September and leads BMW by 1597 sales through the first three-quarters of 2011.

We could spend time considering how much Honda struggles in the United Kingdom - quake-related inventory issues have caused problems for Honda all over the world - or how strange it is to see Chevrolet ranked 25th. We North Americans are accustomed to seeing Chevrolet battling for top spot. Instead, let's analyze the relative power of British brands. Or brands which were once British owned.

For the sake of sticking to automakers we're acquainted with as niche brands, let's exclude Vauxhall. Combined sales at Mini, Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Bentley, MG, Lotus, and brands the SMMT refers to as "Other British" totalled 19,703 in September. That's 5.9% of the UK new vehicle market, a figure Hyundai/Kia can better. However, those same British brands only owned just 0.77% of the U.S. new vehicle market. The Union Jack still inspires some automotive loyalty.

The September 2011 table listing all automobile brands competing for sales in the United Kingdom is below. Scroll down a little more for the market share chart.

Rank	Automaker	September 2011	%  Change	Year To Date	YTD  % Change
#1	Ford	43,350	-6.6	214,628	-6.9
#2	Vauxhall	37,472	-11.3	188,113	-5.3
#3	Volkswagen	29,250	+18.4	143,459	+3.8
#4	Audi	18,588	+17.0	92,324	+13.0
#5	Nissan	18,573	+17.8	77,184	+8.4
#6	BMW	18,184	-2.6	90,727	+10.6
#7	Peugeot	16,902	-7.7	77,900	-12.7
#8	Mercedes-Benz	15,282	+5.9	65,071	+9.9
#9	Toyota	13,019	-11.1	58,118	-19.2
#10	Hyundai	11,562	+37.1	49,091	-5.3
#11	Citroen	11,538	-10.3	54,967	-7.2
#12	Renault	11,245	-21.0	53,341	-29.6
#13	Kia	9729	+17.8	43,253	-9.0
#14	Honda	9690	-20.4	39,564	-24.3
#15	Mini	9690	+28.1	38,147	+16.2
#16	Mazda	7108	-17.5	27,070	-28.4
#17	Fiat	7025	-25.0	34,192	-22.0
#18	Skoda	6950	+27.2	36,297	+11.6
#19	SEAT	6612	+22.9	28,862	+10.4
#20	Land Rover	6230	+7.6	28,684	-6.8
#21	Volvo	5443	+9.6	26,115	-12.7
#22	Suzuki	4550	-0.2	16,951	-4.2
#23	Jaguar	3295	+12.5	11,337	-13.7
#24	Alfa Romeo	1964	+25.0	9480	+55.3
#25	Chevrolet	1644	-27.7	10,073	-10.3
#26	Lexus	1601	+31.2	6162	+15.7
#27	Mitsubishi	1594	-40.8	8383	-14.6
#28	Porsche	943	+52.6	4596	-7.5
#29	smart	766	-45.5	4029	-36.6
#30	Subaru	573	-11.6	2174	-29.4
#31	Jeep	442	+15.4	1669	+3.4
#32	Chrysler	354	+22.5	798	-32.6
#33	Saab	272	-77.6	4046	-3.1
#34	Abarth	267	+9.4	1085	-6.0
#35	Aston Martin	142	+14.5	852	+0.8
#36	Bentley	135	-4.3	851	+5.6
#37	Perodua	71	-28.3	449	-29.8
#38	MG	43	+34.4	227	-9.2
#39	Proton	42	-52.8	375	-41.3
#40	Maserati	41	-37.9	311	-18.8
#41	Infiniti	22	-15.4	224	+85.1
#42	Ssangyong	21	+50.0	32	-85.5
#43	Lotus	5	-82.8	277	-28.4

Source: Automakers & SMMT

CLICK CHART FOR LARGER VIEW

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
UK Auto Sales By Brand - October 2011
UK Auto Sales By Brand - August 2011
UK Auto Brand Market Share - August 2011
UK Auto Sales By Brand - July 2011
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In The UK - September 2011
Canada Auto Sales By Brand - September 2011
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - September 2011

Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - September 2011

Oft repeated but always worth mentioning, the establishing of a Worst-Selling Cars list isn't easy. Certain cars are bound to be poor sellers. Take the Kia Rio for instance, the top (or is it bottom?) ranked car on the first table which measures Worst Sellers by year-over-year percentage decline. The outgoing Rio is dead to the world, the new Rio isn't here yet. How can Kia do anything but sell significantly fewer Rios this September than last?

Of course, every car has its reasons. We expect to see the Acura RL here because it's a shamefully dull midsize luxury car competitor. And Saab has run into some troubles. And Hyundai isn't really doing anything with the current Azera. The Mercedes-Benz R-Class was never a hit. The Nissan Cube lost to the Kia Soul on so many levels. The same could be said of the Honda Insight and its top dog rival from Toyota, the Prius. The Good Car Guy put the Lexus HS250h in The Bad 8. Mercedes-Benz has been suffering from dramatically declining SL-Class sales for months now. And the Acura ZDX is another Bad 8 member because it is so... freaking... ugly.

The Kia Rio, then, doesn't really deserve to be here. In September 2011 it was trapped inside a problem not related to desirability but directly connected to plant retooling, product life-cycles, and inventory. Though many other members of this first Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars list will be here next month, and probably the next, the Rio won't linger long.

BY PERCENTAGE DECLINE

Rank	Vehicle	% Drop	September 2011
#1	Kia Rio	-88.4	190
#2	Acura RL	-82.1	43
#3	Saab 9-3	-81.8	190
#4	Hyundai Azera	-73.6	79
#5	Mercedes-Benz R-Class	-71.9	82
#6	Nissan Cube	-71.1	440
#7	Honda Insight	-69.5	512
#8	Lexus HS250h	-67.5	231
#9	Mercedes-Benz SL-Class	-66.0	67
#10	Acura ZDX	-65.3	87

All Three Lists Updated & Corrected On 10/18/2011

It's fair to say that, based on the second chart you'll see below, the Hyundai Azera would be September 2011's worst-selling car in America. Except there are issues with such a statement. Hyundai has been delaying the next-generation Azera for what feels like a dog's age, allowing the current Azera to soldier on without any support. But under GoodCarBadCar.net Worst Sellers rules (which state that a vehicle featured on the company's website in the current model year which has not been cancelled by its automaker will be eligible) the Azera is a worst seller.

Again, really, the Chevrolet Caprice? Ah, the Caprice is police car only material. The Mazda Tribute? I'm not sure Mazda remembers where the Tribute came from. Long live the 2013 Mazda CX-5. There are currently four Suzuki Equators for sale within 100 miles of northeast San Antonio, Texas, however. If you wanted one you could have one. Thus, on volume terms alone, the Equator does stand out as the true worst-selling vehicle in America in September 2011.

BY VOLUME

Rank	Non-Premium Vehicle	September  2011	Year-To-Date
#1	Hyundai Azera	79	1407
#2	Chevrolet Caprice	140	498
#3	Mazda Tribute	180	2082
#4	Suzuki Equator	187	1599
#5	Kia Rio	190	13,792
#6	Subaru Tribeca	256	1970
#7	Suzuki Grand Vitara	372	3779
#8	Mazda MX-5 Miata	433	4687
#9	Nissan Cube	440	13,652
#10	GMC Canyon	458	7634

In the third chart, one which measures worst sellers by volume but takes into account all vehicles, even those intended to be ultra-exclusive and not just the mainstream contenders, you'll find the ultra-rare Lexus LFA, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, and then a true failure, the Acura RL. Sales of the RL sedan slid 82% in September. The RL is the most boring premium-badged vehicle on sale today. 

The super-rare CL-Class Benz was actually up 28% in September. SL-Class sales fell 66% and the R-Class was down 72%, putting both in the list of 10 Worst-Selling Cars By Percentage Decline at the top of this page. The Acura ZDX, a member of The Bad 8, was off last year's pace to the tune of a 65% decline. Porsche Cayman sales improved greatly in September, up from 61 at this time last year.

BY VOLUME - ALL VEHICLES

Rank	Vehicle  (All-Inclusive)	September 2011	Year-To- Date
#1	Lexus LFA	4	454
#2	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG	25	454
#3	Acura RL	43	979
#4	Saab 9-4X	48	130
#5	Mercedes-Benz CL-Class	64	706
#6	Mercedes-Benz SL-Class	67	1185
#7	Hyundai Azera	79	1407
#8	Mercedes-Benz R-Class	82	1986
#9	Acura ZDX	87	1220
#10	Porsche Cayman	94	1075

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net

Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - October 2011
Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America  - August 2011

Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - September 2011

U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - September 2011