Monday, December 29, 2014

How Quickly We Forget: They Sold These Cars Just Last Year

2008 Jeep Liberty LimitedWhat do the Honda Element, Honda S2000, Chevrolet Aveo, Mazda Tribute, Chevrolet HHR, Lexus HS250h, Cadillac STS, Mitsubishi Endeavor, Dodge Caliber, four Suzukis, and the Jeep Liberty have in common?

They all generated U.S. sales activity in 2013, and we all forgot about them in 2014.

Jeep first introduced the Liberty in 2001 as a Cherokee replacement. In the U.S. alone, nearly 1.3 million were sold. The Liberty's first full year, 2002, was its best, with 171,212 sales. 6101 were sold in 2013. Of those 6101, 81% were sold in the first-quarter. The Liberty's Cherokee replacement will top the 170K mark this year.

Suzuki reported 5946 sales in calendar year 2013. All of those reported sales occurred in the first-quarter of last year. The SX4 and Kizashi were the "big" sellers, with 2859 and 1602 sales, respectively. The Grand Vitara and Equator contributed the remainder.

Mitsubishi sold 109 Eclipses and 24 Endeavors last year. The Galant is the most recently killed Mitsubishi. 122 Galant sales were reported by Mitsubishi USA in the first-quarter of 2014.

Last year, Honda's two S2000 sales popped out of the blue. Honda's two Element sales were the last of 338,788 sold in America. Dodge finished off the Caliber's disappointing run – to begin a disappointing run with the Dart – with 45 sales in the first two months of 2013. Besides five Lexus HS sedans and three Mazda Tributes, leftovers also included 19 Cadillac DTSs, nine Buick Lucernes, seven Cadillac STSs, three Chevrolet HHRs, and two Chevrolet Aveos.

2012 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder redThey all generated varying degree of sales in 2013, but none in 2014. The Hyundai Veracruz, Mazda RX-8, Mercedes-Benz R-Class, Cadillac Escalade EXT, Volvo C30, Acura ZDX, Chevrolet Avalanche, Mitsubishi Galant, Volkswagen Routan, and Mercedes-Benz CL-Class all stand out from the aforementioned pack as these latter cars generated at least one reported sale in calendar year 2014. It's unlikely any of them will turn up on sales charts in 2015, joined in the great parking lot in the sky by, perhaps, the Lexus LFA (one sale reported as recently as November), the Porsche 918 Spyder (sold out, but 20 were delivered in November according to Porsche USA), and the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG (another three sales reported in November).

The Acura TSX is being cleared out: two of the wagons were sold in November; 18 of the sedans. Acura also has a few lingering TL sedans. 78 were reported sold in November. Subaru's Tribeca is very nearly finished – only 30 were sold in November. Chevrolet is finishing up their fleet-only Captiva Sport. The Jaguar XK's casket was prepared months ago but the clear-out will likely continue into 2015. Honda dealers will also need time to rid themselves of Insights.

Many of these we are happy to forget. Some slip too quickly from our minds. Recent history suggests many niche-market BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes will step in to fill the void. There will be plenty of choices in 2015 just as there were in 2014, despite the complete loss of your beloved Suzuki brand and the disappearance of the maligned fourth-gen Mitsubishi Eclipse.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.

The post How Quickly We Forget: They Sold These Cars Just Last Year appeared first on The Truth About Cars.



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