Filed under: By the Numbers
By The Numbers - 2008: Phew! Glad That's Over Edition
by John Neff on Jan 5th 2009 at 7:29PM 
We didn't know sales for the U.S. auto industry in 2008 would be this bad when the year began, but it sure ended on a fitting note. Over the past six months or so we've seen the U.S. auto sales market nearly collapse and almost take our own domestic auto industry with it. Nevertheless, there were a couple of standouts. Both MINI and Subaru somehow managed to post sales gains in 2008 compared to the previous year. The success of MINI is likely due to production capacity more than popularity, but we have no explanation for Subaru other than its sales staff is more persuasive than at your average car dealership.
As for the big dogs, despite the whole lot of them being hit equally hard over the past few months, Japanese automakers had a stronger first half of 2008. As such, their year-end sales data looks better than the domestics with Toyota being the worst performing Japanese automaker at -15.4% and Honda fairing the best with a drop of just 7.91%. In comparison, Ford Motor Company (-20.7%) and General Motors (-22.9%) were equally unimpressive while the Chrysler Group hemorrhaged sales and finished down a full 30%.
As for the rest of the auto industry, it's all there below and it isn't pretty.
| BY THE NUMBERS - 2008 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | Vol. % Change | Total Sales 2008 | Total Sales 2007 | DSR % Change | Daily Avg. 2008 | Daily Avg. 2007 |
| Acura |
-19.8% |
144,504 |
180,104 |
-20% |
469 |
587 |
| Audi | -6.1% | 87,760 | 93,506 | -6.4% | 285 | 305 |
| BMW | -15.2% | 249,113 | 293,795 | -15.5% | 809 | 957 |
| Buick | -26.2% | 137,197 | 185,791 | -26.4% | 445 | 605 |
| Cadillac | -24.9% | 161,159 | 214,726 | -25.2% | 523 | 699 |
| Chevrolet | -20.5% | 1,801,131 | 2,265,641 | -20.8% | 5,848 | 7,380 |
| Chrysler | -38.3% | 335,108 | 543,011 | -38.5% | 1,088 | 1,769 |
| Dodge | -25.9% | 784,113 | 1,058,402 | -26.2% | 2,546 | 3,448 |
| Ford | -19.7% | 1,687,731 | 2,101,244 | -19.9% | 5,480 | 6,844 |
| GMC | -25.5% | 376,996 | 505,746 | -25.7% | 1,224 | 1,647 |
| Honda | -6.4% | 1,284,261 | 1,371,438 | -6.7% | 4,170 | 4,467 |
| HUMMER | -50.9% | 27,485 | 55,986 | -51% | 89 | 182 |
| Hyundai | NA | |||||
| Infiniti | -11% | 112,989 | 127,038 | -11.3% | 367 | 414 |
| Jeep | -29.7% | 333,901 | 475,237 | -30% | 1,084 | 1,548 |
| Kia | -10.5% | 273,397 | 305,473 | -10.8% | 888 | 995 |
| Lexus | -21% | 260,087 | 329,177 | -21.2% | 844 | 1,072 |
| Lincoln | -18.4% | 107,295 | 131,487 | -18.7% | 348 | 428 |
| Mazda | -10.9% | 263,949 | 296,110 | -11.2% | 857 | 965 |
| Mercedes-Benz | -11.2% | 225,128 | 253,433 | -11.5% | 731 | 826 |
| Mercury | -28.6% | 120,248 | 168,422 | -28.8% | 390 | 549 |
| MINI | 28.6% | 54,077 | 42,045 | 28.2% | 176 | 137 |
| Mitsubishi | -24.6% | 97,257 | 128,993 | -24.8% | 316 | 420 |
| Nissan | -10.9% | 838,361 | 941,200 | -11.2% | 2,722 | 3,066 |
| Pontiac | -25.3% | 267,348 | 358,022 | -25.6% | 868 | 1,166 |
| Porsche | -25% | 26,035 | 34,693 | -25.2% | 85 | 113 |
| Saab | -34.7% | 21,368 | 32,711 | -34.9% | 69 | 107 |
| Saturn | -21.7% | 188,004 | 240,091 | -21.9% | 610 | 782 |
| Subaru | 0.3% | 187,699 | 187,208 | -0.06 | 609 | 610 |
| Suzuki | NA | |||||
| Toyota | -14.6% | 1,957,575 | 2,291,648 | -14.9% | 6,356 | 7,464 |
| Volkswagen | -3.2% | 223,128 | 230,572 | -3.5% | 724 | 751 |
| Volvo | -31.2% | 73,102 | 106,213 | -31.4% | 237 | 346 |
| COMPANIES | ||||||
| BMW Group | -9.7% |
303,190 |
335,840 |
-10% |
984 |
1,094 |
| Chrysler LLC | -30% | 1,453,122 | 2,076,650 | -30.3% | 4,717 | 6,764 |
| FoMoCo | -20.7% | 1,988,376 | 2,507,366 | -30% | 6,456 | 8,167 |
| General Motors | -22.9% | 2,980,688 | 3,866,620 | -23.2% | 9,678 | 12,594 |
| Honda America | -7.91% |
1,428,765 |
1,551,542 |
-8.21% |
4,369 |
5,054 |
| Nissan NA | -10.9% | 951,350 | 1,068,238 | -11.2% | 3,081 | 3,480 |
| Toyota Mo Co | -15.4% |
2,217,662 | 2,620,825 | -15.7% | 7,200 | 8,537 |
2008 had 308 selling days versus 307 selling days for 2007
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Rob 7:35PM (1/05/2009)
B-b-but how? Teh new malibu is teh hotness! Wai?!?
Reply
Conundrum 9:18PM (1/05/2009)
Yeah, the Malibu is doing great! Sales were up 43 percent December 2008 vs December 2007 and they were up 39 percent for the entire year of 2008 vs 2007.
Some of Chevy's losses can be attributed to truck and SUV sales falling off a cliff to a large extent.
What exactly are Toyotas problems since the perception is that they make only fuel efficient cars... right?
David 2:48AM (1/06/2009)
What's with all these Malibu fanboys? It's mediocre AT BEST.
Check out this month's Consumer Reports. It agrees.
Even a clueless car company doesn't strike out anytime, but that's not the same thing as a grand slam!
I find it extremely bland and typical-looking. I see no "hotness" there. It's not even new. It's the same car we've already seen in the Aura, and the other GM variants of the same car. The Aura may have been COTY last year (God knows why!), but it's hardly anyone's Driving Excitement now.
Mr. Luke 12:01AM (1/06/2009)
LMAO! It is crap! All of the cheaper GM cars are and most of the supposedly high end cars are too. If you are going to buy an expensive or inexpensive car go with a German car if you want performance and Japanese if you want economy.
Rob 9:49AM (1/06/2009)
No, Toyota is retarded too, they make a crapload of SUVs.
I hope every SUV-happy company dies in a fire. :)
Jake B 4:01AM (1/06/2009)
The fact is that GM makes products such as Malibu that are competitive in their market and offer everything that a buyer of a Camry or Accord could want. Another fact is that GM is an American car company. As an American citizen, I'm pretty sure purchasing the competitive product made by GM is a better decision.
Dan 4:06AM (1/06/2009)
Of course Malibu sales were great relative to 2007.
Because it was redesigned for 2008 and you're comparing to the POS Hertz special that they sold as a Malibu before.
Looking at the real numbers, the Bu sold 180k for 08. The Camry sold 440k, the Accord sold 370k, the Altima sold 270k. That's not exactly taking the market by storm.
Considering the sales leader 4-cylinder is (or was for 08) stuck with a 4-speed auto dating to a mid 90s Cavalier, and the 3.6 that sings to enthusiasts has worst in class sticker mileage while most of 2008 was the year of the gas panic, and the tight hiproom and small trunk combined with fattest in class curb weight, is that absence of storming really a surprise?
Like the Sonata a couple years back, the Malibu draws a lot of positive press coverage because it was the rare overachiever. A mostly competitive car from a company you expected crap from. But there's another step from there to class leader and the Bu ain't there yet.
Conundrum 6:01PM (1/06/2009)
@ David...
Not so much a fanboy as someone who likes to see the records straight after bonehead comments like robs.
So Consumer Reports isn't gaga over the Malibu. It was still North American Car of the Year, Car and Drivers 10 Best List, Automobile Magazine's 2008 All Star List, Kelley Blue Book best redesigned vehicle, and #1 in JD Powers 2008 quality rankings... and in the words of Consumer Reports themselves according to a WKZO news report on 01/06/2009:
"Consumer Reports says with many models, Ford and GM have already closed the quality gap with the Japanese, refuting criticism that Detroit just is not competitive with the imports.
The independent Consumer Union says it has tried them out, and Auto Test Director David Champion says many Ford and GM models are world class.
"In the family sedan category, the Chev Malibu, Ford Fusion, Lincoln MKZ, the Mercury Milan and Cadillac CTS are pretty good products and really competitive with the rest of the world," Champion said.
"Vehicles like the Fusion and Milan are more reliable than a Toyota Camry," he added.
He says Chrysler is another story."
@Dan...
Some of you post is accurate as we know that Malibu sales are canibalized by platform mates from Pontiac and Saturn. Combined sales for the epsilon cars is on par with competitors with 377,873 cars sold.
You pick the worst factoids about the Malibu you can find? People don't typically buy V-6 sedans for the economy, they buy 4 cylinders. You really like to count gears? All Auras and most Malibu models have the six speed avaliable with the 4 cylinder model in 2009. This gives them better fuel economy than Camry, Accord,and Fusion. Oh poor Honda and Toyota with NO six speed auto four cylinders... bummer... I gues they will struggle along with the ancient five speeds. PS. did Honda get the million plus burnt tranny problems fixed yet? I wouldn't trust them if I owned one of those POS exploding trannies.
With a competent car built in Kansas City by American workers working for a Domestic manufacterer, yeah many more Americans will continue to take notice to the GM cars. Does it really bug you that bad?
firstplace 7:37PM (1/05/2009)
haven't I seen this?
Reply
firstplace 7:38PM (1/05/2009)
Guess its a great time to buy an H3....
Craig 11:05PM (1/05/2009)
You saw the December figures, not the full year.
Bill E 7:42PM (1/05/2009)
Who cares if it's over, 2009 is going to be even worse.
Reply
iScream 7:47PM (1/05/2009)
I work at a Subaru dealership, and according to corporate, the reason Subaru sales are up is because they mass marketed very recently. The "Love" tv commercials from Subaru has attracted many buyers, every marketing sceme before that were considered very low key advertising. It wasn't until about one and a half years ago that Subaru decided to dump crap load of money in to advertising.
Believe it or not, Subaru is still unknown to many people. Some people think Subaru is part of Ford because of the blue oval resemblence, and some people think Subaru is from Australia because of the Outback models. Corporate has known this and has decided to grab world wide attention through primetime advertising.
Reply
Red 8:03PM (1/05/2009)
The reason Subaru's profits were up compared to everyone else is because they cater to a very niche market. Unlike practically every other automaker, Subaru is still very small and has not opted to jump into every possible niche available (or in BMW's case, start new, fairly pointless ones).
As I mentioned elsewhere, the larger the company, it appears the harder the fall. Subaru and MINI were "right place, right time" companies. If you need a fuel efficient small, fun car, MINI's entire lineup caters to you. If you need AWD and utility with your efficiency, Subaru is one of the few manufacturers that has you covered practically top to bottom.
I'm impressed by Audi/VW though. Audi has made some major strides in the past two and a half years and it's paying off. How, in this economic climate, I honestly have no idea, but if it works, it works.
estammel 8:12PM (1/05/2009)
Mini has gotten lots of publicity in the second half of this year and it's easy to just look at the numbers like Hummer-50% and Mini+29% and assume that people are shifting to small cars. I'd love to believe it, but statistics definitely stretch the truth.
Props to Subaru, they've done it mainly on marketing, any big new product launches in '08 from them? Not that I can think of..
It's not just the domestics feeling the pain, Lexus being down over 20% surprised me.
Richard 8:05PM (1/05/2009)
I'm on my 5th (SVX, Legacy GT, SVX (another one), Outback H6, Spec. B) after driving BMW's, Jaguars, Alfas, Mercedes and a Maserati.
IMO Subaru offers the best balance of quality, content and driving experience available in the US Market today.
Will 9:09PM (1/05/2009)
@ Estemmel--
Um, yes. The 2009 Forester, Motor Trend's Sport Utility of the Year? And Consumer Reports' #1 rated small SUV?
You know, the car whose sales are up 60% over the 2008 Forester since it came out in March?
BoneHeadOtto 9:52PM (1/05/2009)
yeah people think Subaru is Australian because it has the Australian flag detailing on the logo. That and the outback, and the adds in the Dundee infested 80's, and i believe the company is originally Australian, prior to Fuji heavy industries
montoym 10:55PM (1/05/2009)
quote from BoneHeadOtto: -
"yeah people think Subaru is Australian because it has the Australian flag detailing on the logo. That and the outback, and the adds in the Dundee infested 80's, and i believe the company is originally Australian, prior to Fuji heavy industries" -
Wrong on both counts.
I can somewhat see the resemblance to the Australian flag, but most people probably don't even know what the Australian flag looks like.
For the record, the stars signify Fuji Heavy Industries(large star) and the 5 companies that make up Fuji Heavy Industries. It also has a double meaning, the stars also make up a constellation of sorts and Subaru is actually the translation of the name of the constellation Pleiades.
So, the Australian-owned part of your assumption is obviously false as well with the name of the company being a Japanese word and all.
Here is more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru
Craig 10:59PM (1/05/2009)
Australian flag detailing?
That is actually the Pleiades constellations, which is known by the name Subaru in Japan.
If you can't tell the difference between the Southern Cross (Aussie flag) and the Pleiades constellation, I think you need to do some astronomy.