July 4, 2026
Hyundai Motor Group sold 489,663 vehicles in the second quarter, 27.9 percent more than it managed in Q2 2016 and its best second quarter of the ten-year window. Mazda, at 107,361 and up 33 percent on its 2016 quarter, is the only other automaker that can claim a decade-best among the ten groups that have reported so far. That scope matters: Tesla, VW Group, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and the other mid-July reporters are still out, so nothing here is an industry verdict. Within the 24 brands that have shown their numbers, though, ten years is long enough to sort the field with unusual clarity.
Three camps emerge from the ten-year view. Hyundai and Mazda rebuilt themselves structurally larger, the only two whose 2026 beats everything else they did across the window. Stellantis, 44 percent below its Q2 2016 volume, and Nissan Group, 39 percent below, each lost roughly two-fifths of their second quarter in a decade, and both did so despite growing this year. Everyone else holds a position somewhere in between: Toyota and Subaru modestly ahead of their 2016 selves, GM and Honda slightly behind, Ford well behind.
| Automaker | Q2 2026 | YoY | vs. Q2 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Motors | 713,407 | -3.9% | -5.5% |
| Toyota Motor | 673,970 | +1.1% | +7.8% |
| Ford Motor Co. | 545,978 | -10.4% | -22.4% |
| Hyundai Motor Group | 489,663 | +3.5% | +27.9% |
| Honda Motor Co. | 420,089 | +8.4% | -3.4% |
| Stellantis | 328,277 | +5.9% | -44.0% |
| Nissan Group | 242,741 | +9.6% | -39.0% |
| Subaru | 165,390 | +6.8% | +12.5% |
| Mazda | 107,361 | +7.4% | +33.0% |
| Mitsubishi Motors | 23,127 | +4.6% | -13.5% |
US sales for the ten automaker groups that had reported Q2 2026 by July 4, compared with the same quarter ten years earlier. Each automaker’s figures cover the same brands in both years. Tesla, VW Group, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and several others report later in July, so these rows are not the full industry. Source: automaker press releases and the GCBC US sales database.
A 39,437-Unit Race at the Top
General Motors led the reporting group again at 713,407 units, down 3.9 percent from a year ago and 5.5 percent below its Q2 2016 level, and it has finished on top in ten of the eleven second quarters in this span. Toyota took the other one, in 2021. The distance between the two is the number worth circling: 39,437 units now, against 130,047 in Q2 2016. The Camry did its part with its first 100,000-unit second quarter since 2016, reaching 100,789, up 19 percent and nearly all the way back to the 103,516 it posted that year. The RAV4 did not, falling 24 percent to 94,086 in the middle of its generation changeover, roughly its 2016 volume, and that single model explains most of why the gap did not shrink further.
Ford’s decade is a round trip, and Q2 2016 was the high-water mark. Sales fell 10.4 percent this quarter to 545,978, the worst year-over-year result among the ten reporters and 22.4 percent below 2016, a slide that ran four straight years to 2020, recovered through 2025, then resumed. The F-Series posted its weakest Q2 since 2022 at 197,900, now below the 209,123 it managed ten years ago, and the Escape wound down to 3,238 June sales against 14,934 a year earlier. Maverick and Bronco, at 47,850 and 45,739, add roughly 94,000 units that did not exist in 2016. The hole they were hired to fill is bigger than that.
The Great Nameplate Swap
Nine nameplates that each cleared 25,000 sales in Q2 2016 sold zero in Q2 2026: Fusion, Focus, Cruze, Grand Caravan, Edge, Patriot, Optima, Forte and Impala, about 362,000 quarterly units of mostly sedan volume that left the board entirely. Eleven nameplates that did not exist in Q2 2016 replaced them: Maverick, Bronco, Grand Highlander, Telluride, Bronco Sport, K4, CX-50, Palisade, Trailblazer, Corolla Cross and Kicks all cleared 26,000 this quarter. The winners of the decade are the automakers that executed that swap inside their own showrooms. The CR-V set a ten-year record at 126,677, up 44 percent on its own 2016 quarter, and out-sold every non-pickup among the reporting brands. The Tacoma reached 74,585 from 50,459 a decade ago, the Tucson nearly tripled its 22,280, and the Sportage and Crosstrek roughly doubled theirs.
Brand-level extremes show what the swap did to those who missed it. The Sierra grew 72 percent from 55,335 to 95,147, carrying GMC up 27 percent, while Kia added 23 percent, Hyundai 22, and Genesis went from not existing in Q2 2016 to 20,771 deliveries. On the other side, Fiat fell 99 percent to 81 units and a single nameplate, Dodge collapsed 83 percent from 131,255 to 21,818, the largest brand decline by volume in the group, and Jeep gave back 44 percent from what turned out to be peak Jeep, 252,873 units in Q2 2016 against 140,699 now. Every Stellantis brand of consequence shrank, which keeps this year’s 5.9 percent group gain in proportion: a second straight up quarter still leaves the group 45 percent below its 2018 peak of 600,707. Nissan Group grew 9.6 percent this year, the fastest of the ten, and the Rogue’s 39 percent jump to 65,796 still sits 18 percent below its own Q2 2016.
The mid-July reporters will widen the frame, and Tesla in particular will redraw any electric comparison, which is why none appears here. What the pending releases cannot change is what ten years did inside these ten groups: two automakers a quarter to a third larger than their 2016 selves, two smaller by two-fifths, and a lead at the top that shrank from 130,047 units to 39,437 with a RAV4 changeover as the swing variable. Growth in this group over the decade came from replacing dead nameplates faster than rivals, and the scoreboard now says so in every direction.
