February is always a strange month.
Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day, Sequester Day Countdown and, of course, once every four years, there’s an extra day, just to make winter a little longer.
Last year included Leap Year, providing an extra day of sales, so comparing 2013 February to 2012 may skew the numbers slightly. However, despite one less sales day, the U.S. auto industry outperformed the previous February by 3.4 percent, according to AutoData Corp. And sales for the year are already up 8.4 percent.
So here are seven things I learned from the February car sales.
1. Ford will be the top selling brand in 2013.
Only two months of sales data is available, but it’s easy to call that Ford is will be America’s No. 1 brand in 2013. The F-Series continues to tear up sales, leading all other pickup brands with 54,489 units, up 18 percent for the year. The Fusion is on pace for a record year (and the first full year of sales under the new design). The Fusion’s 27,875 units nearly topped the Honda Accord in monthly sales. Add to that the success of the compact Focus and big Explorer, it’s easy to park the Ford brand in the winner’s circle. It’s already has a 55,000 unit lead over Chevrolet after two months. That gap will get bigger.
2. People really like the Nissan Pathfinder.
The dramatically improved Pathfinder is starting to catch on with consumers. Sales for the SUV have skyrocketed 145.6 percent in February compared to last year and are up 169.3 percent for the year. Through February, Nissan has sold 13,295 units, making it the fourth most popular SUV this year. It’s still far behind the Ford Explorer, which has sold 32,598 units this year, but its solid showing this year demonstrates what a clean design and a well-made product can do to impact buying habits.
3. Other hybrids catching up to the Prius, kind of.
I’ve often thought that the American car buying public wasn’t really a fan of hybrids as much as it was a fan of the Toyota Prius. In fact, I predicted last month that the Prius would outsell all other hybrids combined for the year. This may be my first incorrect prediction.
Hybrid car sales for the year are up a whopping 35.2 percent, with 41,489 units being sold. The Prius was responsible for 17,812 of those sales, or 42.9 percent, in February. (Those sales include all four variants of the Prius.) Ford has grabbed a chunk of those new customers by selling 3,806 Fusion hybrids and 3,183 C-Max hybrids. Hyundai added to the hybrid total by selling 3,201 Sonata hybrids.
As more carmakers offer hybrid options, often exposing consumers who would never consider buying a Toyota to a hybrid, the Prius will no longer rule the hybrid ocean like it once did. The waters are going to get much more crowded.
4. Not all hybrids are equal.
While it appears more consumers are choosing hybrids, they are not considering them for all models, especially when a carmaker offers both a gas and gas-electric version. In fact, when a gas only and hybrid model are both offered, the hybrid version has never outsold the non-hybrid version. One in four Sonata buyers choose the hybrid and only 13 percent of Toyota Camry and Ford Fusion customers chose the hybrid model over the traditional model.
Honda has even worse luck when it comes to customers picking the hybrid over the gas model. While Honda sold 22,713 Civics, only 433 of those were hybrids, or just 2 percent. There are also a number of low volume hybrids now being sold. The Honda CR-Z, 381 units; VW Touareg, 43 units; Audi Q5 hybrid, 76 units; and the Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid, 38 units.
There are lots of reasons customers prefer the gas-only version of a particular vehicle over its hybrid counterpart, but mostly, I’d reckon that price is the difference.
5. Waiting for the Dart liftoff.
I had high hopes for the Dodge Dart when it first arrived. While certainly not perfect, the new Dart seemed to have some momentum, and it is a considerable improvement over the outgoing Dodge Caliber. However, it’s sales six months after arriving in the market seem to be weaker than its 1.4-liter turbocharged MultiAir engine.
In February, Dart sales were 7,740 units, whereas the Chevy Cruze sold 17,947 units, the Ford Focus sold 20,808 units, the Honda Civic, 22,713 units and Toyota Corolla hit 24,999 units. Being eighth in compact car sales is not a serious contender and selling one-third of the top seller does not bode well for the Dart. It’s hard to be a new nameplate, but the Dart is better than eighth.
6. By the numbers in February.
1: The number of people who will learn in March how big of a blind spot their brand new Chevrolet HHR really has.
10: The number of vehicles in Ford’s lineup that individually outsold Lincoln’s total sales of 4,883 vehicles. Ford’s luxury brand continues to stall.
556,160: The combined MSRP for the 32 Dodge Calibers sold.
850,000: The combined MSRP for the two Lexus LFAs sold.
7. What’s hot, what’s not.
Hot: Four midsize cars: The Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Ford Fusion and Nissan Altima are the third through sixth best selling vehicles in February. These four cars made up 18.7 percent of all car sales in America. That is incredibly hot.
Not: Mazda cars. Not a single Mazda car saw an increase in sales in February as car sales dropped 25 percent overall compared to the same month last year. Mazda2 sales dropped 61.9 percent, Mazda3 sales dipped 6.4 percent, Mazda6 sales fell 47 percent and Miata sales declined 20 percent. I can’t think of any reason for all of the sales decreases but it’s getting more difficult to find different words that mean downturn.
Hot: High-end luxury cars: Sales for big luxury cars jumped 26 percent in February and are up 31 percent for the year. Apparently, people who like cars like the Lexus LS 460 (up 52.8 percent); BMW 6 Series (up 45.6 percent); and Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class (up 27 percent) went out and bought them in February. However, the biggest gain in the segment stemmed from the 2,169 Cadillac XTS’s sold in February. Last year, the XTS wasn’t available, so the additional vehicles counted in the segment for the first time. The XTS was the second best selling car in the segment by volume, only behind the Mercedes-Benz E-Class.
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