This afternoon, Autoblog sourced Automotive News on some vitally important reading material for anyone interested in GoodCarBadCar.net’s Sales Stats posts. Here are some of the most pertinent facts.
Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, and Toyota combined to sell over 1,800,000 retail vehicles in the third quarter of 2010 in the United States. 1,800,000 sounds good, until you realize that’s 4% down on 2009, a year that won’t be remembered positively. Total new vehicle sales are up 1%.
The same automakers combined to sell around 450,000 fleet vehicles, the sort of sale that goes to governments, rental agencies, and…. well, company fleets. That’s up 24% from the same period of 2009.
The percentage of sales gone to fleets at Nissan jumped from 2% in 2009 to 9% in 2010. Chrysler, the supplier of all that isn’t sought after at your local Hertz, Alamo, or Enterprise? 39,474 fleet sales so far this year, up from 24,070 in the same period of last year.
Are sales actually rising, as you see with simple outlooks through raw figures? Read on to learn more.
All sales are not created equally. But without more data on fleet sales, I;m not sure how much this judgement matters. Aren't most of the fleet sales most likely trucks? Take away fleet sales and the Camaro/Mustang comparison likely doesn't change. But the Sonata/Camry/Malibu/Fusion probably does.
https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2010/10/chevrolet-camaro-vs-ford-mustang-sales.html
https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2010/10/midsize-sedan-sales-us-september-2010.html