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For the second year in a row, automakers set an all-time record for new vehicles in the United States, selling 17.5 million cars and light-duty trucks. Depending on the source (we refer to WardsAuto and Automotive News), the final tally was between 17.47 million and 17.54 million, or between 0.3 and 0.4 percent better than 2015. Let’s take a look at the factors at play in another record year, including 2016’s winners and losers.
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Sales of the Volvo XC90 more than doubled.
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Trucks and Cars
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Trucks, SUVs, and crossovers continued their dominance over cars, taking 61 percent of the market, higher still than last year’s 57 percent. Overall car sales dipped 9 percent from 2015, and the full-size-sedan segment really stunk. Even the Toyota Camry, the best-selling passenger car in the country, was down 10 percent.
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Compact crossovers and mid-size pickups once again were the fastest-growing segments (each up 26 percent), although they cooled off from their 2015 levels due to fewer new entries (the biggest being the redesigned 2017 Kia Sportage). Non-luxury mid-size crossovers rose 3 percent, while mainstream-brand large crossovers sank 13 percent. Among luxury brands, the action was in the mid-size and larger segments. Compact luxury crossovers dipped by 1 percent despite a redesigned BMW X1 and the arrival of the Infiniti QX30. The mid-size and large segments, in contrast, each jumped 19 percent. New or redesigned entries such as the Audi Q7, Jaguar F-Pace, Buick Envision, and Cadillac XT5 spurred the action, although favorites including the Lexus RX, Audi Q5, and Mercedes-Benz GLC enjoyed year-over-year increases. The Volvo XC90 more than doubled sales to 32,526, while the Tesla Model X (an estimated 15,549 actual deliveries) reached parity with the Porsche Cayenne.
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All-Time Records
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10 individual brands posted all-time annual U.S. sales in 2016:
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Rolls-Royce (1330, estimated, up 10 percent)
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Subaru (615,132, up 6 percent)
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Honda (1,476,582, up 5 percent)
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Nissan (1,426,130, up 5 percent)
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Land Rover (73,861, up 5 percent)
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Porsche (54,280, up 5 percent)
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Audi (210,213, up 4 percent)
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Infiniti (138,293, up 4 percent)
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Kia (647,598, up 3 percent)
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Mercedes-Benz (380,752 including vans and Smart, up 0.1 percent)
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For all of these individual brands except Infiniti and Rolls-Royce, 2016 was in fact a second consecutive year of record sales. Jaguar Land Rover as a whole had its best ever sales (105,104) even though only Land Rover and not Jaguar had a record-breaking year. Still, Jaguar sales more than doubled, to 31,243, thanks to the arrival of the XE and the F-Pace. Crossovers led the charge at Nissan, with the Rogue selling 329,904 units, while at Subaru the Outback (182,898) outsold the Forester (178,593). A stretched wheelbase helped the aging Infiniti QX50 compact crossover more than triple sales, helping Infiniti push past Lincoln. Although Mercedes-Benz sneaked onto this list (just barely), its only models with year-over-year increases were the G-wagen, the GL/GLS-class, the GLK/GLC, and its vans; every other passenger vehicle declined.
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The Chevrolet Volt saw sales increase 61 percent.
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Twenty-three models reached all-time annual U.S. sales:
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Chevrolet Volt (24,739, up 61 percent)
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Kia Sportage (81,066, up 51 percent)
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Nissan Murano (86,953, up 38 percent)
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Kia Forte (103,292, up 31 percent)
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Lexus NX (54,884, up 25 percent)
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Volkswagen Tiguan (43,638, up 22 percent)
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Subaru Outback (182,898, up 20 percent)
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Toyota Highlander (191,379, up 20 percent)
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Nissan Rogue (329,904, up 15 percent)
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Toyota RAV4 (352,154, up 12 percent)
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Honda Civic (366,927, up 9 percent)
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Lexus RX (109,435, up 9 percent)
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Subaru Crosstrek (95,677, up 8 percent)
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Subaru Legacy (65,306, up 8 percent)
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Nissan NV200 (18,523, up 7 percent)
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Infiniti QX80 (16,772, up 7 percent over the previously named QX56)
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Nissan NV (17,873, up 5 percent)
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Honda CR-V (357,335, up 3 percent)
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Acura RDX (52,361, up 3 percent)
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Subaru Forester (178,593, up 2 percent)
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Infiniti QX60 (42,120, up 1 percent over the previously named JX)
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Volkswagen Golf GTI (23,934, up 1 percent)
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Range Rover Sport (21,612, up 1 percent)
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What Fueled the Market
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We’ll state the obvious: Gasoline prices were low. Although OPEC’s September announcement to restrict oil production hiked pump prices during the final quarter, the nationwide average price for regular has yet to top $2.40 per gallon. Back in February 2016, retail prices fell as low as $1.72. Low interest rates continued to keep financing and leasing attractive.
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Through the third quarter of 2016, 86 percent of all new-car buyers financed in some capacity, at average rates of 2.6 percent and 3.6 percent for the two top credit tiers, and the national average was 4.7 percent (according to the latest data available from the credit bureau Experian). New-car loans averaged just over $30,000, financed over 68 months, both on par with 2015.
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Leasing represented nearly 30 percent of all retail sales (up from 27 percent in 2015) as average monthly payments dropped $90 compared with the third quarter of 2015. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, through November 2016, car buyers paid 11 percent less for leased cars than a decade earlier. In September, incentives averaged a record $3923, up from $3753 at the end of 2008, according to J.D. Power. Dealer inventories swelled, averaging about 73 days’ supply as of December 1, compared with 65 days in 2015. (By the end of December, dealers had cleared inventory down to about 62 days.) This would appear to portend even greater incentives and better deals in 2017. Unless, of course, you’re hunting for hot models like the BMW M2.
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Most of the Chevrolet Cruzes sold here are built in Ohio, but some are imported from Mexico.
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Countries of Origin
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With president-elect Donald Trump criticizing Ford, General Motors, and even Toyota for exporting cars built in Mexico to the United States, let’s look at 2016 sales by countries of origin. Unfortunately, sales data lump all cars sourced from the U.S., Canada, or Mexico under the North American label, so we have to look at production figures instead. Excluding models not sold in the United States (such as the Nissan Micra), automakers built nearly 16 million cars in North America during 2016. About 2.7 million cars came from Mexico and 2.3 million from Canada. Although many U.S.-spec vehicles (such as the Ford Fusion, the Mazda 3, and most Nissan and Volkswagen compacts) are built exclusively in Mexico, many automakers continue to divide production of the same model between plants in Mexico and the United States. The Chevrolet Cruze hatchback hails from Mexico (as do limited quantities of the sedan), while almost all sedans are built in Ohio. Most crew-cab versions of the Silverado pickup currently come from Mexico, while the other versions are built in the U.S. At Fiat Chrysler, it’s the reverse, with regular-cab versions of the Ram 1500 built in Mexico and crew cabs assembled in the United States. During 2016, Honda built a smaller number of CR-V models in Mexico in comparison with its plants in Ohio and Canada, although for 2017, the CR-V will move out of the Mexico plant so HR-V production can expand.
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Japan-built vehicles made up 9 percent of all U.S. sales, followed by South Korea (6 percent), Germany (4 percent), and the United Kingdom (1 percent). Other, less popular countries of origin included Italy, Belgium, Spain, and Sweden. Only three models were built in China, totaling just over 17,000 sales: the Volvo S60 Inscription, the Cadillac CT6 plug-in hybrid, and the Buick Envision. From Slovakia, the lone immigrant was the Audi Q7 (30,563 units). Our Thai representative was the Mitsubishi Mirage, at 22,226 sales. The Fiat 500L (3118 sales) was the only car imported from Serbia. A few thousand Chevrolet Caprice and SS sedans made their way from Australia.
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In the Biggest Year Ever for Auto Sales, Big Sedans Sank
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Sales Tale: These Are the 25 Best-Selling Vehicles of 2016
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Showroom Zombies: 21 Discontinued Cars That Were Still Being Sold in 2016
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The Losers
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The Kia K900 did so poorly that it was outsold by many discontinued models; despite a slight refresh, the luxury sedan could only muster 834 units (down 67 percent). The Chrysler 200 and the Dodge Dart—which by January had effectively been pronounced dead by Sergio Marchionne, even if production hadn’t yet ended—each saw their sales drop by more than half. Also at FCA, the Alfa Romeo 4C sold just 480 units in its second full year, down from 659 in 2015. The Nissan GT-R didn’t fare too well, either, at 698 cars (down 37 percent); perhaps pricing it like a McLaren 570S wasn’t the best idea.
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The Toyota Prius V and C variants were both down by 47 percent; the regular Prius slipped 14 percent, but its 103,814 sales nearly tripled the total of the lesser Prii. What do the BMW 6-series and the Fiat 500L have in common? Neither topped 4000 sales, and both were down by half. Some 35 unlucky people bought the Porsche Cayenne diesel and the Volkswagen Touareg TDI in the moments before the federal government’s forced stop-sale over the company’s diesel emissions scandal. Those might well be the last Volkswagen diesels ever sold in this country.
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