5 Not So Hot Cars in January
DETROIT
) -- January was a good month for the automakers, as sales reached their highest level in more than two years, but not everything was rosy in the auto industry.
January also produced its share of disappointments.
Sales of the Ford Fiesta were down 18% in January, apparently losing buyers to the surging Ford Focus. |
We are not even talking about the Volt, even though its sales declined to 638 units, its worst month since August. Obviously, consumer perceptions of the Volt were tarnished by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's investigation of the car's fire risk, which concluded Jan. 20 with a production halt still in effect as
GM
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developed a method to prevent potential post-crash fires.
Probably what the Volt needs most just now is one more reminder that, over the long term, oil prices are headed up, not down. Are you reading this, Mr. Ahmadinejad?
In any case, we set out to find established vehicles with substantial sales totals that failed to measure up to previous performance, even if they did not see particularly large percentage drops.
It is worth noting that of the big seven U.S. automakers, only GM showed a year-over-year decline in sales, and it resulted primarily from the automaker's decision to pull back on its high incentives in January 2011.
Still, each automaker had a loser or two. Here are our top five.
Cadillac CTS
Sales of the Cadillac CTS fell 31% in January, to 3,019, replicating the 29% overall decline to 8,924 vehicles for the Cadillac brand. Sales of Cadillac's sales leader, the SRS, fell 2%, to 4,166.
"With CTS specifically, our biggest issue was tough year-over-year comparisons -- our incentive spending was high a year ago -- and aggressive competition
as
BMW
and
Mercedes
outspent Cadillac on incentives," GM spokesman James Cain says.
"We were also impacted by having fewer returning leases, which is a function of the financial crisis," he says.
Also on the GM sales call, Kurt McNeil, Cadillac vice president of sales and service, noted that the luxury segment weakened in January, accounting for only about 11.3% of industry sales, down from 13.1% for the full-year 2011.
McNeil said he expects luxury sales to improve this year. "Stock market volatility has something to do with that," he says. "If things calm down a little bit I think we'll see some good buying and strength there."
Toyota Corolla
Sales of the
Toyota
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Corolla fell 13%, to 17,988. But sales of the Camry rose 56%, to 28,295, while Prius sales rose 9%, to 11,555.
Overall, Toyota's sales rose 20% in January. "The company's focus has been on the launches of Camry and Prius, with little on the Corolla side," spokeswoman Sacha Terrill says. But Corolla sales remain strong "even without the marketing push."
For the month, Corolla remained the eighth-best-selling vehicle and third-best-selling car in the U.S., behind Camry,
Nissan
(NSANY)
Altima and
Honda
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Civic.
On Monday, Toyota said it added a second shift for Corolla production at its Blue Springs, Miss., plant. The $800 million plant has the capacity to produce 150,000 Corollas annually.
Ford Fiesta
Sales of the
Ford
(F) - Get Report
Fiesta lost 18%, to 3,502, even as sales of the Ford Focus surged 60%, to 14,440. Meanwhile, sales of the Fusion, which had been Ford's most popular car, fell 5%, to 13,614.
On the Ford sales call, sales analyst Erich Merkle said Fiesta is evidently losing sales to Focus. "There is always going to be cross-shopping on any dealer lot," he said. "We've got two vehicles that are very close together in terms of size, in terms of their price point, and at this point in time Focus is the newer vehicle
and people seem to be gravitating toward that product."
Overall, Merkle says, the two cars combined give Ford 10% of the small-car segment, Ford's highest level since 2003. "They're coexisting very nicely on the dealer lot," he says. Additionally, Ken Czubay, Ford vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service, says Fusion has been affected by anticipation of the new model. "We're in our sell-down pattern," he says.
Nissan Sentra
Sales of the Nisan Sentra fell 26%, to 7,066, even as Nissan Altima sales rose 36%, to 22,357, and overall Nissan sales rose 10%, to 79,313.
Sentra "is very dated,"
Edmunds.com
analyst Michelle Krebs says. "It is up against a bevy of spanking new little cars that get spectacular fuel economy -- Chevy Sonic/Cruze, Ford Fiesta/Focus,
Hyundai
Elantra/Accent,
Kia
Rio,
VW
Jetta -- etc, and it is in dire need of a makeover."
The last new version of the Sentra was the 2007 model, which arrived in 2006, with a few improvements in 2010. Fortunately, the 2013 Nissan Sentra is expected to arrive in mid-2012.
Honda Accord
Accord sales gained just 1.5%, to 13,659 units, compared with Honda's overall gain of 9%, to 83,009 vehicles, as Civic sales gained 50%, to 21,883 units, and sales of the new Honda CR-V gained 16%, to 18,960 units.
"Honda's return to full strength on the manufacturing front is already beginning to pay dividends on the sales floor," says John Mendel, American Honda executive vice president of sales, in a statement. "It's gratifying to see how many Civics we can sell when we actually have Civics to sell."
Still, "Honda's product pipeline won't be fully replenished until the end of March," Krebs says. Meanwhile, Accord "has a lot of competition with a revamped Camry, Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima, Nissan Altima -- which is old but has been selling like crazy, VW Passat, Chevy Malibu and Ford Fusion," she said.
"The Accord gets re-done for fall, one of the last of the group to get a makeover," Krebs says. The new Accord, unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show, is expected to arrive in the fall.
-- Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C.
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