Unless the beautiful details that have been gradually released over the last few months add up to less than the sum of our parts, it appears as though the second-generation Volvo XC90 will be an impressive machine on which to lay eyes.
As mentioned on TTAC earlier today, the new XC90 will be unveiled on August 25. Its screen orientation will be flipped in Tesla-like portrait fashion. It will be fast. The XC90's shifter is made by Orrefors Crystal. It will possess a host of one-step-farther safety features. It will, for at least a moment or a day or a week, be a headline-grabbing car.
And surely there will be more American SUV buyers opting for the new XC90 than there have been American SUV buyers opting for the old XC90 over the last few years.
Aside from a slight 5% (490 units) year-over-year U.S. sales gain in 2011, XC90 volume hasn't done anything but decline since the nameplate's peak in its second full calendar year, 2004.
Quite a year it was, too. The XC90 outsold most premium brand SUVs and crossovers that year. Volvo reported 39,230 XC90 sales in 2004, a year in which BMW sold fewer than 36,000 X5s and Mercedes-Benz ML volume didn't climb above 26,000 units. The XC90 outsold the whole Land Rover division that year. Porsche sold more than 18,000 Cayennes in 2004. Cadillac reported slightly more than 30,000 copies of the SRX; Infiniti sold a similar number of FX35s and FX45s.
Out in front of the XC90 were full-size American luxury brutes from Cadillac (36,994 Escalades and 15,618 Escalade ESVs) and Lincoln (36,398 Navigators) and the same power players that exist today: Lexus sold 106,531 RXs in 2004; Acura sold 59,505 MDXs.
We're all aware of the XC90's decade-long story of inactivity. As always, style is subjective, but the XC90 remained handsome over time. Yet it did not change during a period in which Acura introduced a new MDX, and then another new MDX; a period in which Infiniti introduced a new FX and a popular Pathfinder-based JX/QX60. We've seen two new Mercedes-Benz M-Class generations since 2004.
The XC90 mostly went along without updates, and year after year after year, sales declined. From that 39,230-unit peak in 2004, XC90 sales fell below 19,000 units in 2008, below 10,000 units in 2012. After averaging 35,000 annual U.S. sales between 2003 and 2007 – a normal product lifecycle after which other automakers would have debuted a new version – XC90 volume averaged 11,000 annual units between 2008 and 2013.
Naturally, this has had a huge impact on the brand's fortunes in the United States, particularly since the brand has killed off numerous products and failed to market others on this side of the Atlantic. The XC90 represented 28% of the 139,384 Volvos sold in America in 2004, 18% of the 61,433 company's 2009 sales, 11% of Volvo's 2013 volume, and just 9% of the 34,224 vehicles Volvo has sold through the first seven months of 2014.
The Volvo V60 wasn't going to rescue Volvo in North America. Indeed, that fresh new wagon only sells about as often as the grey-haired SUV. Bringing back the quirky C30 wouldn't heal the brand. Ripping up the C70's execution order won't do the trick. Importing the V40, though useful, would not turn Volvo from a brand that sold 61,233 vehicles in 2013 back into a brand which sold 139,384 vehicles in 2004. If Volvo has a future in North America, it will be as a direct result of the XC90′s successful launch.
Pressure's on.
The post Understatement: New Volvo XC90 Needs To Sell Well appeared first on The Truth About Cars.
from The Truth About Cars http://ift.tt/Jh8LjA
Put the internet to work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment