2018 Subcompact Sales Results

Well, here we are in 2019. And now that it's 2019, we can reflect on the small car sales of 2018.

Pretty interesting year, frankly. A number of automakers, including Ford, announced it was going to stop selling sedans in favor of CUVs and SUVs. We saw slumping subcompact sales, too. But how bad (or good) was it?

The biggest year over year change came from the Toyota C-HR, the smallish FWD crossover, which had a 92.7% gain in sales vs. 2017. But that's where the huge gains end.

The Kia Rio and Hyundai Ioniq hybrid both posted gains over 30%. The top five gains are rounded out by the MINI Countryman and Chevrolet Trax.

The 2018 Toyota Yaris Liftback had the biggest sales drop on our 2018 sales list. 

The biggest drops in sales—and there some biggies—were anchored by a 77.6% decline in Toyota Yaris liftbacks. At the time of this post, Toyota still hasn't announced a 2019 Yaris Liftback. And, with sales of just 1,940 units all year long, it wouldn't surprise me if they simply won't offer it any longer. Down 67.2% was the Smart ForTwo. Frankly, I'm not really sure what's going on there. I know they're all EVs these days, and maybe that's why. It's been on a continual downward spiral for quite some time, however. The little Fiat 500 has also been clinging to life the last couple of years. For 2018, overall sales were down a dismal 58% with just 5,370 units moved. Rounding out the bottom five, are the Hyundai Accent, which was down 50.7%, and the not-so-miniature MINI Cooper Clubman, down 43.3%.

The 2018 Mitsubishi Mirage line outsold the Chevrolet Spark for the first time since its introduction. 

Of particular interest to me is the continual sales rivalry between the Chevrolet Spark and the Mitsubishi Mirage, two of the least expensive cars for sale on the U.S. market. For the first time since its introduction, the Mirage outsold the Spark. Impressively, both cars had year-over-year sales gains with the Mirage up 8.6% and the Spark up 4.5%. Despite the large increase in CUV, SUV, and truck sales, these to pint-sized cars are still racking up sales—proof people want inexpensive, small vehicles. Granted, we don't know the breakdown of consumer vs. fleet sales. Regardless, sales were up.

2019 PREDICTIONS

I predict that 2019 will be very similar to 2018 in the subcompact market. We'll hear more small cars are going away in favor of small CUVs. However, I'll bet the Mirage and Spark continue to soldier on as economy car champs. We shall see! Onto the chart:

Make/Model	Sales 2018	Sales 2017	% Change
Toyota C-HR	49642	25755	92.70%
Kia Rio	22975	16760	37.10%
Hyundai Ioniq	15076	11197	34.60%
MINI Countryman	17565	14864	18.20%
Chevrolet Trax	89916	79289	13.40%
Ford Fiesta	51730	46249	11.90%
Kia Soul	115712	104709	10.50%
Mitsubishi Mirage	24316	22386	8.60%
Buick Encore	93073	88035	5.70%
Chevrolet Spark	23602	22589	4.50%
Mazda CX-3	16899	16355	3.30%
BMW i3	6117	6276	-2.50%
MINI Cooper Convertible	5334	5512	-3.20%
Jeep Renegade	97062	103434	-6.00%
Honda HR-V	85494	94034	-9.10%
MINI Cooper 2DR Hardtop	9950	11257	-11.60%
Hyundai Veloster	10871	12658	-14.10%
Fiat 500L	1413	1664	-15.00%
MINI Cooper 4DR Hardtop	6450	7724	-16.50%
Mazda MX-5 Miata	8971	11294	-20.60%
Fiat Spider	3515	4478	-22.00%
Chevrolet Bolt	18019	23297	-22.70%
Honda Fit	35300	49454	-28.60%
Nissan Versa	75809	106772	-29.00%
Toyota Yaris iA	25269	35727	-29.30%
Chevrolet Sonic	20613	30292	-31.90%
Fiat 500X	5223	7665	-32.00%
Toyota Prius c	8399	12415	-32.60%
MINI Cooper Clubman	4385	7739	-43.30%
Hyundai Accent	29090	58955	-50.70%
Fiat 500	5370	12685	-58.00%
Smart ForTwo	650	1983	-67.20%
Toyota Yaris Liftback	1940	8653	-77.60%
Ford EcoSport	54348	0	0
Nissan Kicks	23312	0	0
Hyundai Kona	8319	0	0