Notable Numbers from February Sales
By Bill Visnic March 4, 2010The story that Ford Motor Co. outsold General Motors Co. (by 471 units) for the first month since August, 1998, has made the rounds.
But February's sales charts served up some other noteworthy numbers. Here is a selection:
Ford and GM's totals were No.1 and No. 2 in the market, and figures for the "Big 7" automakers were rounded out, in descending order, by Toyota Motor Sales USA at 100,027; Chrysler Group LLC at 84,449; Honda Motor America at 80,671; Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. at 70,189 and the Hyundai Group (Hyundai and Kia brands combined) at 58,056.
Ponycar update: Yeah, it's only March, but here's the tally in the Ford Mustang-vs.-Chevy Camaro bout, with the first two rounds (January and February) completed: Camaro - 11,853. Mustang - 9,862. Mopar fan? Dodge Challenger: 3,828.
Woe is sportscar. January and February aren't known as strong months for sportscar and convertible sales, but even allowing for that, the numbers for sportscars ain't getting any prettier. Consider February's sales totals for some of the market's sexiest sheetmetal: Chevrolet Corvette - 624; Mercedes SLK - 61; Mazda RX-8 - 77; Porsche 911 - 339; Porsche Boxter/Cayman - 184; Mitsubishi Eclipse - 260.
The what's-going-on watch is in full force for both Mitsubishi Motors North America and American Suzuki Motor Corp. If you think the winter's looking bleak for Mitsubishi and its 4,019 total sales in February, Suzuki would love to have such problems - the maker of the SX4 and the unfortunately named new Kizashi sedan found just 1,345 willing buyers last month.
Rumor was as much as 60 percent of Chrysler's sales came from fleet buyers last month. Back out that figure from the company's total sales and that works out to about 33,780 retail sales in February - about double Mazda's total. - Bill Visnic, senior editor
Photos by manufacturers
1. Ford Fusion hooved up plenty of Toyota business in February.
2. Chevy Camaro sales currently burning rubber on Mustang to the tune of about 1,000 more per month.
3. The new Kizashi couldn't help Suzuki much in February.
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Click here to comment on this entry.I seem to recall Edmunds saying that Chrylser was in danger of being overtaken by Hyundai last month. Now there is a >20,000 gap in Chrylser's favor. I am no Chrylser fan and yes they have fleeted far too much. But I wouldn`t want people to jump to any conclusions based on just a few months data.
Hyundai are on a roll, as is Ford.
In regard to the ponycar update - I'm amazed Ford is able to sell any Mustangs at this time with the new ones about to come out (with the vastly improved powertrains). Ponycar enthusiasts, as a whole, tend to be a well informed lot, though it appears there are still numerous impulse buyers and the incentives are doing their job.
I am also surprised that the author didn't note that, as of yesterday, Ford has received 11,000 orders for the new Mustang, since the order banks opened a month ago. This is pretty significant and makes the article's ponycar update sales numbers somewhat irrelevant.
Maybe this news broke too late for the author to catch, but this is an automotive site and one would think they are monitoring the latest developments. Note to author - please see media.fordvehicles.com in case you want the latest news...
To carguy1974,
Edmunds didn't say that--I did. But I didn't factor in fleet sales. Hyundai/Kia blew the doors off Chrysler on the retail side, with 58,056 units shipped, nearly 72% more than Chrysler.
If it weren't for the fleet sales, Chrysler wouldn't be part of the Big 7 at all.
I would venture that Chrysler still has too many dealers, despite shutting down a third of them since last fall.
"unfortunately named new Kizashi"
Suzuki. Toyota. Mitsubishi. Ferrari. Porsche. Hyundai. Funny foreigners with their funny foreign languages. They should use English so we too could have Sunny Excellents instead of Sentra SEs and Fairlady Zs instead of 370z's.
Seriously, in this economic environment can't you find a few educated, literate people to write for you?
What is the point of Suzuki if there are better Korean cars. Mitsu became one car company. Other than Evo I cannot think about anything worthy made by Mitsu. Both Mitsu and Suzuki may be good enough for third world countries (where they are most likely make all their business) but not for US market. Chrysler cars are old, who is going to buy them other than fleets? PT Cruiser, LX cars, old and odd looking minivans and poorly designed Caliber/Avenger/Sebring trio. Ford made more updates in their line up in 4 years than Chrysler in 10.
To bc1960,
Bill Visner's resume is bulletproof (at least to me). He's established a strong, viable reputation throughout the automotive industry, and to accuse him of being uneducated and illiterate is classless and wrong.
Suzuki, Toyota, Ferrari and Porsche are named after their founders. Hyundai maintains a position as one of the world's largest cargo shipbuilders. (If you recall, the company started building autos to smooth out its cash flow from supertanker sales.)
I'm not familiar with the origin of Mitsubishi, but Mitsubishi Heavy Industries builds excavation equipment, power stations and electronic equipment, among other things.
More than 50% of Suzuki's annual production is sold in India.
It's astonishing how many contributors have minimal knowledge of this industry, beyond their experience with their own autos and the ever-present spin of the news media.
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