It's hard to go shopping for a new car when you're buried in snow. That's one major takeaway from the spreadsheet embedded below, but if you look a little bit closer, you'll see that some companies weathered the storm better than others. You'll also see that the month was led, rather surprisingly, by Buick.
After Buick's 45-percent gain, Dodge, Maserati, and Jeep managed to give Fiat Chrysler Automobiles three of the top-five-performing brands last month. Each of those three FCA brands, along with the Volvo and Porsche, reported gains of more than 10 percent. Overall, FCA posted a 6.9-percent sales increase in January, led by its truck-heavy lineup. It's not all roses for FCA, though, as Fiat, the Chrysler brand, and Alfa Romeo all came in at the bottom of the January rankings.
Looking at individual models, almost all of the best performers were crossovers. But it wasn't the usual suspects posting double-digit gains, it was the outliers. While the Toyota RAV4 was the best-selling CUV last month – its sales were up nearly 9 percent – the biggest gainers were the Nissan Rogue (+26 percent), Ford Edge (+25 percent) and Dodge Journey (+20 percent). The Honda CR-V, traditionally at the top of the rankings, fell over 17 percent. Honda's other noteworthy crossover, the Pilot, fell over 30 percent.
While January was a mixed bag overall for automakers both foreign and domestic, sales are expected to continue their upward path throughout 2016, as they had in 2015. After all, the snow will indeed melt, and more weekend shopping sprees will be planned. In other words, stay tuned for a rebounding February.
A few more noteworthy data points:
After Buick's 45-percent gain, Dodge, Maserati, and Jeep managed to give Fiat Chrysler Automobiles three of the top-five-performing brands last month. Each of those three FCA brands, along with the Volvo and Porsche, reported gains of more than 10 percent. Overall, FCA posted a 6.9-percent sales increase in January, led by its truck-heavy lineup. It's not all roses for FCA, though, as Fiat, the Chrysler brand, and Alfa Romeo all came in at the bottom of the January rankings.
Looking at individual models, almost all of the best performers were crossovers. But it wasn't the usual suspects posting double-digit gains, it was the outliers. While the Toyota RAV4 was the best-selling CUV last month – its sales were up nearly 9 percent – the biggest gainers were the Nissan Rogue (+26 percent), Ford Edge (+25 percent) and Dodge Journey (+20 percent). The Honda CR-V, traditionally at the top of the rankings, fell over 17 percent. Honda's other noteworthy crossover, the Pilot, fell over 30 percent.
While January was a mixed bag overall for automakers both foreign and domestic, sales are expected to continue their upward path throughout 2016, as they had in 2015. After all, the snow will indeed melt, and more weekend shopping sprees will be planned. In other words, stay tuned for a rebounding February.
A few more noteworthy data points:
- Fiat Chrysler's 7-percent gain marks the 70th consecutive month of sales increases for the automaker.
- Subaru managed its 50th consecutive month of increased sales.
- There were 24 selling days in January of 2016, which is two fewer than the same month a year ago.
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