May's Fastest and Slowest Selling Cars

The Toyota Prius may have left the Top 10 Best-Sellers last month, but shoppers still snapped up the latest additions to the Prius family: the Prius Plug-in and subcompact Prius c. Both have been among the fastest-selling cars since they hit Toyota dealerships earlier this spring. Speaking of spring, the hottest one on record played well for Mercedes-Benz. The first full redesign in a decade for the iconic SL-Class roadster needed just eight days per car, on average, to sell. That car starts at $106,405 including destination. Another droptop, the updated Ford Mustang convertible, sold fast, too, but its crosstown rival, the Chevrolet Camaro convertible, sat at Chevy dealers an average of 119 days. It joins a Losers list that remains mostly unchanged, with a scattering of posh — but slow-selling — nameplates. In total, new cars needed an average of 50 days to sell in May. That's bit longer than April's 45 days, but it keeps with last year, which saw an uptick from April to May — in that case, from 48 days to 54 days. The Mustang, Lexus RX 350 and BMW X5 saw big increases in interest among Cars.com shoppers last month, landing all three on KickingTires' Buzz Index. All three are among the Movers, with the X5 making a repeat appearance. Updated or redesigned cars often populate the Movers, but the X5 and Kia Soul joined them. The Soul arrived three years ago, and the current X5 dates back to November 2006. The sales results were mixed: Soul sales fell 9% in May, while the aging X5 jumped 39%. Still, Hyundai-Kia had a banner month — six Movers, with big sellers like the Hyundai Sonata sedan and Kia's Optima sedan and Sorento SUV taking fewer than 20 days to sell. So why did the Korean automaker's sales increase rank last among the Big Seven in May? Inventory could be to blame. Hyundai and Kia dealers kicked off the month with less than half the cars in stock versus the rest of the industry, according to Automotive News. Here are May's Movers and Losers: Movers 2012 Toyota Prius c: 8 days 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in: 8 days 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL550: 8 days 2012 Kia Soul: 9 days 2012 Subaru Impreza hatchback: 9 days 2013 Hyundai Elantra sedan: 9 days 2013 BMW X3: 10 days 2013 BMW X5: 10 days 2013 Infiniti JX35: 10 days 2013 Lexus RX 350: 10 days 2012 Hyundai Veloster: 11 days 2013 Acura RDX: 11 days 2012 Hyundai Accent hatchback: 12 days 2012 Hyundai Accent sedan: 12 days 2013 Ford Mustang convertible: 13 days 2013 Kia Rio sedan: 13 days Losers 2012 BMW 650i convertible: 146 days 2012 Mercedes-Benz S350 Bluetec: 140 days 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander: 136 days 2012 GMC Savana 3500 cargo van: 135 days 2012 BMW 740 Li: 129 days 2012 Infiniti EX35: 126 days 2012 Lexus IS F: 125 days 2012 Infiniti M56: 125 days 2012 Nissan NV cargo van: 119 days 2012 Chevrolet Camaro convertible: 119 days Cars.com Recommendations 2012 Acura TL: 60 days 2012 Volvo S60: 63 days 2012 Kia Forte hatchback: 64 days 2012 Chevrolet Traverse: 69 days 2012 Mazda3 sedan: 85 days About the Lists The Movers and Losers list reports the average number of days it takes to sell models from the day they arrive on the lot until the final paperwork is signed by a buyer. This is not a days-of-inventory list like you may find on other websites. We're now focusing on only 2012 and 2013 model years. For Movers, we only list vehicles that pass a certain threshold of sales in order to weed out limited editions, ultra-high-performance cars and others that might skew the numbers or otherwise inaccurately portray popularity. For Losers, we have removed any threshold to reflect 2012 models that may have the greatest incentives. We changed the headline of our Movers and Losers last month. But will continue to call the lists themselves Movers and Losers. Related April's Fastest and Slowest Selling Cars See Why We Recommend the Toyota Prius c More Automotive News on Cars.com from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/

puts the internet to work for you. via task 647517