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Toyota passes Ford as #2 automaker in U.S., Mazda improves by 9.8%

01/04/2008, 8:54 AM

By Drew Johnson

The official U.S. sales numbers for 2007 are in. The biggest winner of 2007 was Mazda — with an improvement of 9.8% — with the biggest loser being Jaguar — slipping 24.4%. Overall, import brands faired better than the domestic marques.

Also of note is that Toyota surpassed Ford as the number two automaker in the U.S. by about 50,000 units. On the year, Toyota was up 2.7% while Ford was down 12.1%. However, Ford’s Lincoln brand improved by 8.8%.

General Motors easily retained its top spot in the U.S. — selling 3,866,620 vehicles — but still slipped by 6.5%. Surprisingly, GM’s Buick brand fell by 23% — edging out HUMMER (-22%) as GM’s biggest loser — despite strong sales of the Enclave CUV.

Chrysler was also down on the year, but only by 3.4%.

Honda and Nissan both saw improvements, growing their sales by 2.5% and 4.5%, respectively.

BMW’s MINI brand saw another good year in the U.S. — improving by 7% — no doubt because of the brand’s excellent fuel economy.

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01/04, 9:12 AM

posted by:

CA36GTP

Took you long enough, LLN!

Well, I was pretty close. Not surprised at all to see Ford tanking, that was a given. As far as Lincoln goes, what’s 8.8% of ****?

Surprised that Buick is GM’s hardest hit brand. I didn’t expect it to gain sales, but 23% is a big dip. Goes to show that you can’t keep a name alive with one viable product. I also wonder if more Lacrosse’s and Lucerne’s were going to fleets than I thought. I’m curious to see how GM’s profit margin has changed. Sales numbers were obviously going to go down, but that’s less important than profit-per-vehicle in the current market.

01/04, 9:58 AM

posted by:

Gary

I don’t feel Toyota will hold it’s position at this time next year. They are starting to loose focus on their quality along with styling.

01/04, 10:15 AM

posted by:

cwwilson

Not surprising. There’s far more imports than domestics anyway. If you want to compare certain marques, that’s fine. but making the point that imports outsell domestics…no ****, they outnumber American brands like 10:1.

01/04, 10:25 AM

posted by:

SS4LIFE

Yeah this is somewhat surprising news. I’m most surprised to hear that Buick was GM’s worst seller, especially with the Enclave selling very strongly. GM still has alot of work to put into Buick still. Yeah CA36GTP I thought Toyota too was going to take the #1 spot. I wonder what the difference in sales was between GM and Toyota. According to LLN “GM easily retained its top spot in the U.S” so I guess they weren’t as hard hit as I thought. Well with the starting of a new year… Don’t F*** up GM!

01/04, 10:37 AM

posted by:

johnnycanuck

GM needs to start taking small cars seriously.

Ford needs to kill Mercury and offer Lincolns that are not just dressed up Fords.

Chrysler needs a design team like they had under Tom Gale.

All of the above must happen soon to stop the bleeding.

01/04, 12:16 PM

posted by:

jamaicandude

I agree. They should also bring over some of the European models. Case in point: Focus.

01/04, 1:29 PM

posted by:

Scarface03

The Buick stat should be troubling for GM. It likely would have been better with a full year of Enclave sales, but maybe Buick’s typical buyer (retirement age) is just picking one of the two look-a-likes (Lucerne and LaCrosse). With nothing else in the showroom, Buick has less to entice buyers.

01/04, 2:41 PM

posted by:

corvette

Toyota doesn’t have enough glue to keep their company from expanding without collapsing…soon enough.

01/04, 3:38 PM

posted by:

C6Racer

I agree with johnny about the Lincoln thing. Ford needs to take a lesson from GM and treat Lincoln like GM is treating Cadillac, trying to make it as different as possible.

01/04, 4:11 PM

posted by:

jonnycat

Chrysler knocked Ford out of #2 spot in Canada.

01/04, 4:36 PM

posted by:

johnnycanuck

I’m not surprised, johnnycat. And I’ll bet the difference was the Caravan vs. no minivan at all.

01/04, 7:51 PM

posted by:

affliction

GM has 9 brands (gm, gmc, chevy, buick, saab, saturn, hummer, pontiac, & cadillac) being sold in North America. GM sold 3.82 million vehicles. On the other hand, toyota with 3 brands (toyota, scion, & lexus) sold 2.62 according to cbsnews. I don’t even have time to count how many cars gm sells in total so I did it brand for brand instead…..With 6 more brands, gm is only able to sell 1.2 million cars more than toyota in its own home turf and for the most part with lower prices….(Plus the many red-tag events and other incentives) That’s just freaking sad. I think toyota can compete with 6 of GM’s brands with just two cars: camry & corolla.

01/04, 9:41 PM

posted by:

Veda

With $100 per barrel oil, this year’s results are gonna get very interesting… I see that BMW’s fuel consumption strategy has paid off. Mercs really need to make their engines more fuel efficient.

01/05, 5:21 PM

posted by:

jayjc08

You would think that with the huge amount of losses Jaguars had/having, they’d be in the sales numbers of Lamborghini.

01/06, 11:44 AM

posted by:

WEKS

When are we getting the WORLD wide sales numbers? Far more interesting than just the US, Europe or any other market.

01/07, 8:01 AM

posted by:

Get Real

I thought the Taurus was supposed to stop this from happening.

Also the Edge was supposed to stop this.

Killing the Town Car and Crown Vic helped however.

 
 
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