August 2015: Big Numbers For Big Vehicles Edition

Car shoppers in the United States are well on their way to buying over 17 million new cars and trucks in 2015. If that happens, it will be just the third time in history that milestone has been reached. As has been the case all year, trucks, SUVs, and crossovers are leading the way, with the Jeep brand proving especially strong in August. Jeep's 80,804 vehicle sales is a new record for the brand, and it represents a monthly increase of 18 percent over the same month in 2014.

Mitsubishi posted the biggest gain overall, though its 8,289 sales last month is still a small number in the grand scheme of things. Volvo was close behind, with a gain of more than 18 percent, but again, the Swedish brand's 5,869 units is pretty small potatoes. Keeping with the big-gains-but-small-numbers theme, Jaguar Land Rover's 12.25-percent increase last month tops our company-wide figures, though Ford's smaller 5.65-percent gain is arguably more impressive, considering the sheer number of vehicles the Blue Oval sells each month. For those keeping track, Ford's 233,880 sales handily puts it ahead of Toyota's 224,381.

Ford sold more than 70,000 F-Series pickup trucks in August of 2015, which registers as a nearly 5-percent increase over last year, leading us to believe the brand's frame-supplier woes may finally be behind it. Audi's 10-percent sales increase was spurred by crossovers – the Q5 is Audi's top-selling nameplate so far this year, and the Q3 saw its sales explode by close to 400 percent.

On the negative side, Toyota saw sales plummet 10.5 percent, though its overall performance was propped up some by Lexus. While FCA's final numbers look good, its Chrysler and Dodge brands performed dismally last month, posting 14 and 15-percent declines, respectively.

A few more noteworthy data points:

• The seasonally adjusted annual rate for 2015 sits at 17.72 million, according to Wards Auto. That figure is higher than anticipated.
• Lexus outsold BMW and Mercedes for the luxury brand sales lead for the second month in a row. Keeping with the overall theme, Lexus' boost is due in part to its new NX crossover. For the year, BMW leads by just over a thousand total units, followed by Lexus in second and Mercedes in third place.
• There were 26 selling days in August of 2015, which is one fewer than the same month a year ago.

As always, you're encouraged to peruse our past By The Numbers posts for all the sales data from previous months and years.