June 2012 Sporty Car Sales And Premium Sporty Car Sales In America

How does one go about selling a Jaguar XK when Mercedes-Benz has a new SL-Class and BMW’s 6-Series is still a recent reintroduction?

June 2012 Premium Sporty Car Sales Chart
Click Either Chart For A Larger View

Well, one barely does. Only 92 XK convertibles and coupes were sold in America in June 2012. That’s down 65% year-over-year, a bad enough statistic to make June the XK’s worst U.S. sales month since February of last year. Jaguar sold 210 XKs in February of this year. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz SL-Class sales jumped 217% in June 2012 and the half-year total is now better than 2011’s full-year total. BMW 6-Series sales are still on the rise, having more than doubled in June and tripled compared to the first six months of 2011.

For the third time this year, Volvo C70 sales improved on a year-over-year basis. But June’s increase was notable for its largesse, as C70 sales climbed from 547 to 836. That figure is 123 units better than Volkswagen’s Eos total and 176 sales better than what Mazda managed with the MX-5 Miata – and the RX-8! – combined.

June 2012 Sporty Car Sales Chart

Although it’s not keeping pace with the overall market’s 15% growth through the first six months of 2012, Chevrolet Corvette sales have improved in 2012. Chevrolet sold 126 more Corvettes in the first half of 2012 than in the first half of 2011. Audi sells more A5 coupes and convertibles, but the Corvette has outsold the Audi TT, BMW Z4, Mercedes-Benz SLK, Porsche Boxster, and Porsche Cayman combined, and it has done so quite easily.

Boxster sales, however, are now on the rise. Yes, Porsche dealers finally have Boxsters to sell. In this pent-up-demand kind of a month, the Boxster was up 117% to 464 units in June 2012, good enough to outsell the TT and Z4 combined.

Automotive News estimates that Ferrari USA sales to have totalled 145 June 2012. AN also pegs Aston Martin at 68 units, Lamborghini at 29, and Lotus at 20. We know Maserati sold 228 cars and Bentley 223; we just don’t know the breakdown by models.

Historical monthly and yearly sales figures for every new vehicle on sale in North America can be accessed, free of charge, through the first dropdown menu at GCBC’s Sales Stats home or near the top right of this page. Pertinent links can be clicked at the bottom of this post. Click either of the two charts you see for a larger view. After the jump you can examine detailed June 2012 and year-to-date sales figures on niche cars like the Mini Coupe and high-volume muscle cars like the Ford Mustang.

Sporty Car	June 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
Audi A5	1607	+ 18.1%	8002	+ 2.3%
Audi TT	190	+ 2.2%	1142	+ 9.5%
BMW 1-Series	701	+ 17.0%	4164	– 9.3%
BMW Z4	240	– 52.1%	1412	– 30.6%
Chevrolet Camaro	9123	+ 7.5%	49,697	+ 1.9%
Chevrolet Corvette	1475	+ 13.5%	7022	+ 1.8%
Dodge Challenger	4009	+ 18.5%	23,451	+ 16.3%
Ford Mustang	10,263	+ 16.2%	48,624	+ 24.5%
Honda CR-Z	409	– 57.7%	2404	– 70.0%
Hyundai Veloster	3232	—–	18,829	—–
Infiniti G37 Coupe/Convertible	1353	+ 18.3%	6991	– 5.8%
Mazda MX-5 Miata	659	+ 30.0%	3426	+ 11.1%
Mazda RX-8	1	– 98.5%	80	– 83.3%
Mercedes-Benz SLK	301	– 11.5%	2264	+ 107%
Mini Convertible	539	+ 6.7%	2692	+ 2.9%
Mini Coupe	252	—–	1565	—–
Mini Roadster	224	—–	990	—–
Mitsubishi Eclipse	126	– 92.7%	884	– 83.4%
Nissan 370Z	720	+ 11.8%	4473	– 1.6%
Porche Boxster	464	+ 117%	624	– 43.9%
Porsche Cayman	26	– 78.0%	401	– 44.9%
Scion FR-S	2684	—–	2770	—–
Scion tC	2128	+ 3.7%	11,559	– 10.3%
Subaru BRZ	818	—–	1089	—–
Subaru Impreza WRX	1138	+ 71.6%	6844	+ 10.9%
Volkswagen Eos	713	– 19.5%	3688	– 0.7%
Volkswagen GTI	1508	– 1.8%	8986	+ 1.0%
Volkswagen Golf R	447	—–	1957	—–
Volvo C70	836	+ 52.8%	2864	– 3.4%

Premium Sporty Car	June 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
Audi R8	78	– 27.8%	503	– 16.2%
BMW 6-Series	642	+ 106%	3577	+ 222%
Jaguar XK	92	– 64.8%	865	– 9.9%
Lexus LFA	2	– 71.4%	24	– 17.2%
Mercedes-Benz CL-Class	58	+ 9.4%	387	– 23.8%
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class	346	+ 217%	1575	+ 65.8%
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG	86	+ 378%	559	+ 60.6%
Nissan GT-R	104	+ 5.1%	583	– 29.5%
Porsche 911	861	+ 44.5%	4833	+ 46.3%

Source: Manufacturers & ANDC
Clearly GoodCarBadCar is not suggesting that the cars in the two tables above are all direct competitors. Establishing categories among cars as unique as even the Audi TT and Porsche Boxster has never pleased a single reader, so cars have been lumped together so you can simply see how buyers looking for sports cars, roadsters, hot hatches, convertibles, GTs, and wanna-be sports cars spend their money. Greater categorization of cars would only lead to problems that automakers create by not isolating model-specific sales figures: we don’t know how many M3s BMW has sold or how many Civics are Si models, for example. The numbers we do have are listed above.