Friday, June 27, 2008

Small car sales mixed


The latest issue of Automotive News has an article about why some small car sales are up, and others, well, not so much. You'd think that with $4.00/gallon gas, most smaller vehicles would be flying off lots, but that's not always the case. AN says factors such as image and production are factors when buyers are looking at small vehicles.

According to the article, sales changes from 2007 to 2008 have been very good for vehicles like the Toyota Yaris (up 50.4% from 2007), the Honda Civic (+20.2%), Honda Fit (+64%) and Ford Focus (+35.7%).

On the "not so much" side of things, the Mitsubishi Lancer is down 7.7%, the Pontiac G5 is down 5.8%, and the Chyrsler PT Cruiser is down a whopping 38.3%. Granted, none of these are subcompacts, but they are still considered small cars. The Chevrolet Aveo, which is a b-segment vehicle, is up only 2.3% from last year.

Other factors the article lists as being bad for small car sales: supply disruptions, bad powertrain choices, and production constraints.

This news comes amidst news that Honda is going to bump up it's supply of Fits for the U.S. market due to high demand. Looks like Honda and Toyota are definitely doing something right!

1 comment:

BSP_yaris said...

The PT cruiser shouldn't even have been mentioned. It's gas efficiency is horrible, and is more a midsize sedan than any of the other cars mentioned.