Auto news and reviews from Car Buyer's Notebook.com: Industry Statistics Archives

May 16, 2008

Ford Europe sales up 6.4% in April

COLOGNE, Germany – Ford of Europe's business momentum continued with another strong sales month in April.

Ford sales in the Euro 19 countries were up by 6.4 percent to 129,500 units, for a market share of 8.1 percent. When sales in Russia, Turkey and the 30 Ford European Direct Markets are added, Ford of Europe's sales for April totaled 161,140 units, an increase of 8 percent over the same month last year.v

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Posted by Frank at 8:10 AM | Filed under Auto News | Ford | Industry Statistics

May 15, 2008

Worldwide Prius Sales Top 1 Million Mark

Tokyo -- Toyota announced today that worldwide cumulative sales of the Toyota Prius—the world's first mass-produced gasoline/electric hybrid vehicle—have passed the 1 million mark, with approximately 1,028,000 units sold as of the end of April this year.

Currently, Prius sales are robust in more than 40 countries and regions, particularly in Japan and North America. Nearly 60%, or 591,600 Priuses have been sold in North America.

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May 12, 2008

Auto Industry Predictions: We're 3 for 4!

A new report from Comerica Bank shows that the average vehicle purchase, excluding finance costs, is $24,627, the lowest quarterly average in 2 1/2 years.

This jibes with our recent prediction that average transactions would drop below $25K, which you can read about here.

And while we're on a victory lap, we also would like to point out we were one of the first to point out the damage the housing crisis would have on vehicle sales, which we detailed in this video from last August.

Also, at the beginning of 2008, we were among the first to report that this would be a year of tremendous rebates.

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May 10, 2008

Ford Kuga crossover driving sales in UK

BRENTWOOD, Essex – The launch of Ford's new crossover, the Kuga, will strengthen the appeal of the blue oval, which has seen popularity rise by over six per cent with private car buyers.

The Ford Kuga goes on sale next month in the expanding compact 4x4 segment. With the lowest CO2 emissions in its segment, the Kuga is expected to be another winner with retail customers.

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Posted by Frank at 8:03 AM | Filed under Auto Marketing | Auto News | Ford | Industry Statistics

May 9, 2008

Volvo's milestone customers pack for a dream trip

Here are the happy owners of Volvo number 15,000,000. Aimee and Paul Kay bought a piece of Volvo history when their C70 was delivered in San Diego - and to top it all off the couple get to travel to Göteborg in Sweden and visit Volvo's Torslanda factory.

The 15th million Volvo was transported more than 8000 kilometres from the Volvo factory in Uddevalla to San Diego on the US west coast.

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One million hybrids on American roads

In December 2007, an auto dealership employee somewhere in America handed a new owner the keys to the one millionth hybrid vehicle sold in this country. In that month, industry sales of 30,892 hybrids brought the cumulative total to 1,012,442 units.

This event occurred a month after Toyota recorded the sale of its 500,000th hybrid in the United States, and only a few months after Toyota Motor Corporation reached the one-million-unit mark in global production of hybrid vehicles.

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May 8, 2008

Mercedes sells 500,000th SLK

Stuttgart - With the delivery of the 500,000th vehicle since its market launch in 1996, Mercedes-Benz has now reached another milestone with the successful SLK compact roadster.

All in all, about 310,000 customers opted for a model from the first generation of this dynamic two-seater, and its successor has now sold 190,000 units since its market launch in March 2004.

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Chrysler Mexico Sets a New Sales Record

Mexico City -- In April 2008 Chrysler Mexico and its brands Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep® sold 9,505 units, an increase of 19.3 percent vs. the same month in 2007. This is the second-best April ever for Chrysler Mexico and the best accumulated year-to-date sales (40,629 units) since 2002.

Dodge reported 6,967 vehicles sold, 37.8 percent more than in 2007, powered by the Dodge Dakota pickup and the all-new Dodge Journey.

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BMW Group posts 12.5% increase in global April sales

Munich -- The BMW Group once again continued its upward sales trend for all three car brands in April. Overall, in a month-on-month comparison, the company recorded a 12.5% increase in the number of vehicles delivered to reach a total of 133,205 (prev.yr.: 118,378).

For the year to April, 485,155 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles have been sold. This is an increase of 7.5% (prev.yr.: 451,311) compared with the same period in 2007.

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May 7, 2008

Mercedes-Benz global sales up 22%

Stuttgart — Combined sales of the four brands of Mercedes-Benz Cars (Mercedes-Benz, AMG, smart, and Maybach) reached a total of 119,000 units for April, an overall increase of 22 percent from the 2007 figure (97,800).

Since the beginning of the year, Mercedes-Benz Cars has thus delivered 437,700 vehicles, representing a 14 percent increase compared to the same period last year (384,600).

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May 6, 2008

Nissan GT-R Sold Out in US, Attracts 1,500 Europe Pre-Orders

CASCAIS, Portugal, 5th May 2008 - Just one month after the European order books were opened for its all-new supercar, Nissan has received over 1500 orders for the GT-R.

Selected dealers across Europe began taking orders on 2nd April, with on-line orders starting two days later. Since then the 56 nominated High Performance Dealers across Europe have already taken a year’s supply of orders in one month. Nine hundred and fifty orders for GT-R have been taken in the UK alone.

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Honda Reports an Increase in April Sales

TORRANCE, Calif. -- American Honda Motor Co., Inc., posted an April sales result of 135,180 vehicles, a decrease of 1.3 percent over April 2007 sales of 126,419 vehicles, on a daily-selling-rate basis*, the company announced today.

American Honda posted April car sales of 82,252 units, up 7.1 percent over last year, and April light-truck sales of 52,655 units, a decrease of 12.1 percent compared to year-ago results. Year-to-date American Honda total vehicle sales rose 0.5 percent over the same period last year, to 487,822 units.

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Posted by Frank at 8:10 AM | Filed under Acura | Auto News | Honda | Industry Statistics

Acura Announces April Sales Results

TORRANCE, Calif. -- The TL performance luxury sedan was Acura's top-selling model with April sales of 4,291 units, eclipsing MDX sales for the first time in months.

Acura sales for April tallied 13,025 units, down 20.9 percent based on the daily selling rate* compared to April 2007. Year-to-date** Acura vehicle sales totaled 50,565 units, down 14.9 percent compared to 2007.

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Posted by Frank at 5:39 AM | Filed under Acura | Auto News | Honda | Industry Statistics

May 4, 2008

Top twenty best selling small cars for April 2008

Americans rediscovered cars in April 2008, with small cars in particular accounting for nearly one in five of all vehicles sold in an otherwise down month.

Toyota had four vehicles in the top twenty, General Motors had three; Nissan, Hyundai and Kia had two apiece. And Dodge has a hit with the Caliber, which made the list at number 9.

With people paying nearly $4 per gallon of gas nationwide, it appears that the free market has achieved what environmentalists have been clamoring about for years -- to conserve fuel by buying smaller vehicles.

The top twenty best selling small cars for April 2008:

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Top ten best selling crossovers for April 2008

Overall, pickups and SUV sales were down 17.4% in April and are down 13.5% for the year to date. The one bright spot is the crossover and small wagon category, which was down 0.4% for the month but has edge up 1.9% for the year.

In general, crossover utility vehicles are built on car platforms, while traditional SUVs are built on truck frames. CUVs are smaller, lighter and get better gas mileage than big SUVs -- one way to think of them is that they are really modern station wagons, but shorter and with a higher profile.

This months list of the top ten selling crossovers features three vehicles from General Motors, and two each from Ford and Toyota. Also of note, the new Nissan Rogue made the list at number ten.

The top ten best selling crossovers for April 2008:

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