There's been a long discussion about how small car sales are waning and how larger vehicle sales are gaining in popularity in the U.S. Heck, many thought 2019 would not be a strong car sales year for all cars. Well, the U.S. sales were down, but there were still 17 million vehicles sold (that five years with more than 17 million car sold, FYI). Pretty dang good. How'd the smaller cars do? Let's look.
For being a slow sales year (note sarcasm), small cars sold pretty well overall. General Motors takes the sales cake for '19 moving 116,816 Chevrolet Trax and 102,402 Buick Encore models. Those two models alone come in at 219,218 units! That's not something I expected as both models sold under 100,000 units in 2018. Honda Sold over 99,000 HR-Vs, Kia sold just under 99,000 Souls, and Jeep's pint-sized crossover moved just over 75,000 units. And yes, the top six cars on the list are, you guessed it, crossovers. That is if you consider the Soul a crossover, which Kia Motors America, Inc. does.
Let's talk about some of the slower-moving vehicles. Not speed wise, but in a sales sense. At the bottom of the list is Fiat's 500L. This sales sloth has was second to last the previous year, and scrapes bottom for '19 moving a scant 771 units all year long or about 64 cars a month nationally. And just above it is the entire rest of the Fiat lineup. Now remember: Fiat announced it'd be pulling the 500 off the U.S. market this year, but that shouldn't matter too much as there are scads of them still out there. It does, however, highlight the problem the brand has in the U.S. While we don't have a crystal ball, it wouldn't be surprising to see the brand exit the North American market, especially with the recent FCA and Groupe PSA merger.
One of my favorite small car sales battles, however, has been between the least expensive cars: The Chevrolet Spark and the Mitsubishi Mirage. Well, for '19 the Spark takes back the Most Popular Cheap Car by 4,325 units. It should be noted that both models were up in sales, but the Spark was up a whopping 32.5% (vs. Mirage's 10.3%). This shows me the market does need low-priced vehicles out there. I'm glad to see both models outpacing last year's sales.
Were there any surprises last year (other than Trax/Encore sales)? For me, the biggest surprise is Ford Fiesta sales, which topped 60,000 units, up 16.3% vs. last year. The company moved the most Fiestas since 2015. Hey, I thought FoMoCo was going to discontinue the car? Also, the Nissan Kicks was WAY up in sales, but it's likely because it had a late 2018 introduction, so the number is inflated.
I think '19 was an interesting year for small cars. The cars I listed here totaled 1,169,034 units. That's approximately 6.9% of total cars sales in the U.S. No, it still isn't a mega number. For perspective, light truck sales (e.g. pickups) sold 3,113,943 units and there are only 13 truck models in total.
Anyway, we'll see what happens with 2020. Hyundai has its new Venue out there, but I haven't heard much about any other new small cars coming down the pipe. But we'll see; I have a feeling '20 could be an interesting year.
Make/Model | Sales 2019 | Sales 2018 | % Change |
---|---|---|---|
Chevrolet Trax | 116,816 | 89,916 | 29.9 |
Buick Encore | 102,402 | 93,073 | 10.0 |
Honda HR-V | 99,104 | 95,494 | 15.9 |
Kia Soul | 98,033 | 104,709 | -6.0 |
Jeep Renegade | 76,885 | 97,062 | -21.0 |
Hyundai Kona | 73,326 | 47,090 | 55.7 |
Nissan Versa | 66,596 | 75,809 | -12.2 |
Ford EcoSport | 64,708 | 54,348 | 19.1 |
Ford Fiesta | 60,148 | 51,730 | 16.3 |
Nissan Kicks | 58,193 | 23,312 | 149.6 |
Toyota CH-R | 48,930 | 49,642 | -1.4 |
Honda Fit | 35,414 | 35,300 | 0.3 |
Chevrolet Spark | 31,281 | 23,602 | 32.5 |
Mitsubishi Mirage | 26,966 | 24,316 | 10.3 |
Hyundai Accent | 25,628 | 29,090 | -11.9 |
Kia Rio | 24,961 | 22,975 | 9.0 |
Toyota Yaris | 21,916 | 27,210 | -19.5 |
Hyundai Ioniq | 19,574 | 15,076 | 29.8 |
Chevrolet Bolt | 16,418 | 18,019 | -8.9 |
Mazda CX-3 | 16,229 | 16,899 | -4.0 |
Chevrolet Sonic | 13,971 | 20,613 | -32.2 |
MINI Countryman | 13,969 | 17,565 | -20.5 |
Hyundai Veloster | 12,849 | 10,871 | 18.2 |
MINI Cooper /S Hardtop 2 DR | 8,462 | 9,950 | -15.0 |
Mazda MX-5Miata | 7,753 | 8,971 | -13.6 |
Cooper /S Hardtop 4 Door | 6,065 | 6,450 | -6.0 |
BMW i3 | 4,854 | 6,117 | -20.6 |
Cooper /S Convertible | 4,031 | 5,334 | -24.4 |
Cooper /S Clubman | 3,565 | 4,385 | -18.7 |
Fiat 500 | 3,267 | 5,370 | -39.0 |
Fiat Spider | 2,644 | 3,515 | -25.0 |
Fiat 500X | 2,518 | 5,233 | -52.0 |
Fiat 500L | 771 | 1,413 | -45.0 |
Hyuindai Venue | 787 | - | - |
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