American and Korean automakers were the primary benefactors last summer, as consumers found limited vehicles Toyota, Honda and Subaru lots (Nissan was subjected to fewer supply shortages since it builds so many cars and components in North America). But it turns out that analysts - even those employed directly by the Detroit 3 - were a bit off in predicting just how strong demand was last month.
June's Numbers
Acura - Up 77 percent to 15,370
Audi - Up 26 percent to 12,664
BMW - Up 0.4 percent to 21,725
Buick - Up 27 percent to 18,851
Cadillac - Up 9 percent to 12,124
Chevrolet - Up 15 percent to 180,098
Chrysler - Up 63 percent to 26,863
Dodge - Up 2 percent to 44,315
Fiat - Up 122 percent to 4,004
Ford - Up 7 percent to 200,215
GMC - Up 15 percent to 37,677
Honda - Up 46 percent to 109,438
Hyundai - Up 8 percent to 63,813
Infiniti - Up 66 percent to 10,436
Jaguar - Down 26 percent to 1,030
Jeep - Up 23 percent to 44,519
Kia - Up 14 percent to 51,326
Land Rover - Up 14 percent to 3,602
Lexus - Up 86 percent to 20,022
Lincoln - Up 3 percent to 7,544
Maserati - Up 21 percent to 228
Mazda - Up 3 percent to 19,911
Mercedes-Benz - Up 8 percent to 24,371
Mitsubishi - Down 35 percent to 5,411
MINI - Up 15 percent to 5,995
Nissan - Up 25 percent to 81,801
Porsche - Up 18 percent to 3,002
Ram - Up 11 percent to 25,110
Smart - Up 208 percent to 1,017
Subaru - Up 40 percent to 27,702
Suzuki - Up 1 percent to 2,299
Toyota (Includes Scion) - Up 58 percent to 157,773
Volkswagen - Up 34 percent to 38,170
Volvo - Flat at 7,107
BMW Group - Up 3 percent to 27,720
Chrysler - Up 20 percent to 144,811
Daimler - Up 11 percent to 25,392
Ford Motor Company - Up 7 percent to 207,759
General Motors - Up 8 percent to 248,750
American Honda - Up 49 percent to 124,808
Hyundai Group - Up 10 percent to 115,139
Jaguar Land Rover - Up 2 percent to 4,632
Nissan North America - Up 28 percent to 92,237
Toyota USA - Up 60 percent to 177,795
2012 YTD Numbers
Acura - Up 20 percent to 72,936
Audi - Up 17 percent to 65,158
BMW - Up 11 percent to 126,504
Buick - Down 4 percent to 90,198
Cadillac - Down 18 percent to 62,812
Chevrolet - Up 6 percent to 961,662
Chrysler - Up 75 percent to 167,754
Dodge - Up 14 percent to 261,578
Fiat - Up 319 percent to 20,706
Ford - Up 7 percent to 1,101,661
GMC - Up 7 percent to 201,041
Honda - Up 15 percent to 628,046
Hyundai - Up 11 percent to 356,669
Infiniti - Up 15 percent to 54,377
Jaguar - Up 1 percent to 6,506
Jeep - Up 28 percent to 241,547
Kia - Up 18 percent to 288,707
Land Rover - Up 21 percent to 20,991
Lexus - Up 23 percent to 108,132
Lincoln - Down 0.1 percent to 41,962
Maserati - Up 17 percent to 1,288
Mazda - Up 18 percent to 143,797
Mercedes-Benz - Up 17 percent to 137,877
Mitsubishi - Down
MINI - Up 8 percent to 32,059
Nissan - Up 14 percent to 523,344
Porsche - Up 6 percent to 16,450
Ram - Up 19 percent to 120,098
Smart - Up 86 percent to 4,748
Subaru - Up 24 percent to 164,304
Suzuki - Down 3 percent to 12,9994
Toyota (Includes Scion) - Up 29 percent to 937,964
Volkswagen - Up 35 percent to 208,725
Volvo - Down 5 percent to 34,618
BMW Group - Up 11 percent to 158,563
Chrysler - Up 30 percent to 834,068
Daimler - Up 18 percent to 142,649
Ford Motor Company - Up 7 percent to 1,143,623
General Motors - Up 4 percent to 1,315,713
American Honda - Up 15 percent to 700,982
Hyundai Group - Up 14 percent to 645,376
Jaguar Land Rover - Up 16 percent to 27,497
Nissan North America - Up 14 percent to 577,721
Toyota USA - Up 29 percent to 1,046,096
The Domestics
Chrysler continues to perform strongly, although its pace was slower in June than it has been for 2012 on the whole. Big performers last month were mostly its cars - a big 179 percent gain for the Chrysler 300 and a solid 68 percent jump for the Dodge Avenger. Chrysler's best-seller remains its Ram pickup, but the Jeep Wrangler cruised into second place with 14,461 deliveries (up 28 percent over May).
Ford saw a modest overall gain, but individual results were mixed. A mid-month arrival of the new Ford Escape pushed sales of the crossover up 28 percent, while the lame-duck Ford Fusion (a fleet-heavy model) saw a solid 17 percent bump. Lincoln sales remain mixed; MKT numbers nearly doubled to 697 units, but the brand was hurt overall by the discontinued Town Car (a loss of about 900 sales).
Chevrolet's new Malibu boosted sales 32 percent to 31,402, which was nearly enough to topple the Chevrolet Silverado (33,566). Otherwise, the bowtie brand's sales were all over the place - up for crossovers and SUVs, down for the Cruze compact. Cadillac delivered 753 XTS sedans during its first month on sale, which helped the crest-and-wreath brand post a positive overall number.
Buick found more than 4,000 Verano buyers, but it's unclear just how many of those would have bought Regals (sales were down 34 percent to 2,326 for that model). At GMC, GM's good news brand, sales were up across the board except for the standard-length Yukon (down 24 percent).
The Asians
June was a great month for Honda - its best June since 2008, in fact. Big gainers includeded Accord (up 84 percent) and Civic (up 57 percent). At Acura, the news was even better, especially for the new RDX (up 189 percent). Just over 1,000 ILXs were sold, which represents about 40 percent of TSX volume. Acura will be very closely watching these two sedans, since the Indiana-built ILX is much more profitable for the automaker.
Hyundai broke an all-time record for June with sales up for most higher volume models, although Elantra continues to slide a bit (sales hit 17,655, a 12 percent slide).
Hyundai sister brand Kia also had its best ever June and the brand remains the fastest-growing car company in the U.S. Its biggest payer remains the Optima, which has sold over 73,000 units so far in 2012.
Even though demand was still pretty strong last summer, Nissan posted a solid increase, especially for its Juke (up 53 percent) and Rogue (up 47 percent) models. Nissan's new Altima also saw a 12 percent increase, even though a redesigned model isn't yet in full supply.
Nissan's Infiniti brand posted a huge increase, in part because of supply issues last summer. Its new JX crossover found 2,428 buyers, which is quite impressive for a large luxury vehicle.
Subaru broke a sales record last month with figures up all around, even for its slow-selling Tribeca (184 delivered). The biggest gains came from the Impreza (up 147 percent to 5,181), but enthusiasts will be happy to note that 818 BRZs and 1,138 WRXs (up 72 percent) found new owners.
Toyota bounced back strongly with gains for nearly every one of its products aside from the lame-duck Toyota Avalon (down 22 percent) and the ultra limited-production Lexus LFA (down 73 percent). The Lexus GS continues to perform strongly, with sales up 606 percent to 2,020, while the automaker's expanded Prius family sold more than four times as many cars last month as it did during the same period the year before.
Scion found 2,684 FR-S buyers, making the sporty coupe the brand's best-selling model.
The Europeans
Audi had its best-ever June thanks in part to a big 227 percent jump in demand for its A6 sedan. Its highest volume models were also positive with sales up 3 percent for the A4 and up 61 percent for the Q5.
BMW sales were essentially flat, but the automaker did have a good month for its MINI unit. Despite having been on the market for several weeks, the redesigned 3-Series saw a 26 percent dip in demand - potentially due to limited supply.
Jaguar Land Rover continues to see mixed results from its two brands. Land Rover's volume model remains the Range Rover Sport (1,235 sold last month), while Jaguar's is the XF (489 sold).
Volkswagen is still a ways off from its goal of selling 800,000 cars annually in the U.S. by 2018 (that's just six years away!), but it is certainly gaining ground. Jetta sales were weak last month - down 20 percent - but 10,252 Passats definitely helped VW's bottom line.
Volvo was essentially flat (7 more cars sold), but it did see most gains for most of its volume models including the XC60 and S60.
Leftlane's bottom line
While most analysts predicted that the bigger Asian automakers affected by the tsunami - namely, Toyota and Honda - would see particularly strong numbers last month, what wasn't expected was relatively strong numbers from the industry as a whole.
Sales were up about 22 percent last month to just shy of 1.3 million vehicles. That's significantly ahead of the industry so far this year, where sales are up about 15 percent to roughly 7.3 million vehicles.
Will this momentum continue into next month? It's hard to say, but it's certainly going to be a heck of a ride.
