Every major automaker today reported significant U.S. sales declines for the month of November. Worst hit – so far – was Chrysler, down a whopping 47 percent. But Nissan and General Motors weren’t far behind with massive 42 and 41 percent drops, respectively. You might be surprised to hear Hyundai is next on the list, declining 40 percent, and sister company Kia tumbled 37 percent. And even Toyota’s sales slumped by 34 percent.
Nissan division reported a 44.4 percent drop, while its Infiniti luxury subsidiary saw a 28 percent drop.
Honda reported an overall decline of 32 percent. Mazda sales were down roughly the same amount — 31.3 for the month of November. Ford fared slightly better than much of the competition, reporting a 31 percent decline in sales. Following closely was Daimler, reporting a 30 percent drop in Mercedes-Benz and Smart sales. BMW sales were down 27 percent.
Subaru seems to be fairing the best so far – the Japanese automaker’s sales were down just 8 percent and its Forester compact SUV had its best November ever.
Mitsubishi sales were down 36 percent to 5,096 units, though the Outlander had its best month in six months.
But sometimes it’s important to dig a little deeper into these numbers. For example, BMW brand sales were off a whopping 36.1 percent. Sales of Mini models shot up an amazing 43.1 percent, which helped to improve BMW’s overall figures. Similarly, Mercedes brand sales were actually down 38 percent, offset somewhat by sales of Smart models, which began in the United States in January 2008.
Over at the Chrysler camp, sales figures are a mixed bag of bad and worse. Chrysler brand sales collapsed 57 percent, while Dodge was down 44 percent and Jeep 42 percent. Chrysler 300 and Sebring sales fell by 70 percent and 67 percent, respectively. Aspen and Challenger sales were the only good news.
Ford was a little more balanced, with the namesake brand declining 30 percent, and Mercury falling a predictable 41.4 percent. Surprisingly, Lincoln sales were down just 8.3 percent, which is definitely a good sign for the luxury brand, which introduced the new MKS sedan this year. Ford’s Volvo subsidiary was the firm’s biggest loser, reporting a 46.5 percent decline.
The Toyota and Lexus divisions had comparable declines of 33.8 and 34.7 percent, respectively. Scion sales slumped the most — down 45 percent. Rival Honda was slightly more polarized, with the luxury Acura division posting a 39 percent decline, compared with a 30.6 percent drop for the Honda brand.
Data sheets
12/02, 4:07 PM
posted by:
JakeK66
Why did Ford fare better? Their product isn’t all that new, I guess the F-150 helped it a bit and so did lower gas prices. But Still?
12/02, 4:13 PM
posted by:
yarddog82abn
Last I check every one every where reported low sales number… Even with Black Friday sales…
12/02, 4:24 PM
posted by:
HoosierHero
Wait…the Aspen sold well? WTF?? JakeK66- I was tempted to buy a Ford when I saw F150’s for sale at $9k brand new!
12/02, 4:28 PM
posted by:
Lionwithoutpride
It saddens me to know that Ford is going to look at Volvo as a liability now and will probably end up selling them. I really hope I am wrong. We all know how well Ford and Volvo did in the safety reviews that came out recently. I just hope Ford is forward-thinking enough to realize that it is Volvo’s culture of safety (whether one believes they are still leaders in safety or not) that leads Volvo to continue to try and innovate safety and that is something I just do not think Ford has.
I could be wrong; but, I think that if Ford sells Volvo then Ford is going to start letting safety slip again. Someone can correct me if I am wrong; but, I have always heard that safety is one of the biggest factors in selling cars, so Ford needs to stay focused on safety. That said, again, I just do not see Ford, sans Volvo, making the right decisions in regards to safety. One need only consider that Ford is stretching out ESC as an OPTION on many of its vehicles until it becomes mandatory. This, despite the fact that safety advocates claim 1/3 of all annual highway fatalities (about 10,000 deaths) could be avoided by all new autos being equipped with ESC. That is not the approach that will keep Ford on top of safety. No matter what car enthusiasts think of Volvo as a brand they offer Ford an incredibly strong asset in terms of safety.
12/02, 4:33 PM
posted by:
A4
yeah woah what did the aspen sell compared to last year?
12/02, 4:47 PM
posted by:
Mutant@DCX
Aspen was a company/employee lease special for last month. ( hybrid excluded )
12/02, 4:52 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
As bad as those numbers are they don’t even take into account that there’s probably very little if any profit being made on most of those sales. Aside from giving the damn things away what do they do next to generate some traffic?
12/02, 5:26 PM
posted by:
gogogodzilla
How did Volkwagen and Audi do?
12/02, 5:40 PM
posted by:
TOZO
VW & Audi averaged a 21% decline, VW lost 19%, Audi sold 25% less in November. They did do OK last month. Mini is the only brand that is up this month. For the year, only Subaru is up – barely up 1%, and Mini up 31% by volume. As a company, Daimler is up 1% for the year too due to Smart. Everthing else appears extremely SCREWED for now.
12/02, 6:07 PM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
LMFAO @ crApuras stupid mouth causing sales declines despite the plethora of new models. POS.
12/02, 6:36 PM
posted by:
Commodore
Ouch, at this rate is the US car market even going to make it to 13 million total units as forecast?
And what about China? PLEASE tell me that their car market has stopped expanding for now
12/02, 7:48 PM
posted by:
FSVT_ROCK
ford is getting better and better now, and they going to be the #1 sell faster then GM does since GM has been pushing all their product back. Ford is going to kick some ass in next couple years.
12/02, 9:53 PM
posted by:
elviososa
Ford wil be kicked if they sell the Volvo unit.
12/03, 1:21 AM
posted by:
teahead
Chrysler selling 85k units is not that bad I must say.
More sales than Honda.
Chrysler needs to vastly revise their cars’ interiors and revamp that ugly Sebring sedan!
I think Jeep and the new 09 Ram will be good sellers as gas prices are down. Problem is…home construction is way down, so truck buying will suffer.
I think these car companies just needs to reduce production. I mean, the market is FLOODED w/used cars.
And folks are not going to get in debt for 5-6 years when they can’t even make the mortgage or rent payments!
12/03, 9:54 AM
posted by:
sprockkets
Volvo doesn’t sell here. Anything not selling is a liability. Selling off Mazda I believe was for their sake, err, right?
Anyhow, seeing the Mini jump in sales is ridiculous, since they already are overpriced due to low production and their so called novelty value. They do keep their value, but still, I’m not going to pay around $30k for a car with nav/xenon/and a sport turbo package that is just as fast as my current 2005 Mazda3, $18k when purchased.
12/05, 3:09 PM
posted by:
jackjimturkey
In short, the whole industry is in what Archie Bunker calls “the turlet.”