Honda grabbed its third sales victory in August as the Civic topped compact car sales, narrowly beating the Toyota Corolla for the month.
The Civic’s sales increased by 3.7 percent over July, but are still down over August 2014 and for the year. With its victory, the Civic joins the Accord and the CR-V as sales leaders in their respective market segments.
The Corolla still leads for the year with a dominating 30,000 sales lead over the second-place Civic. It also saw a month-over-month increase with 4.9 percent more sales than in July. While the Corolla’s sales are up nearly 6 percent for the year, sales were down 4 percent over August 2014.
The Hyundai Elantra continues to be the best of the rest, posting a solid sales month. For the year, the Elantra is up 10 percent over 2014.
Further down the list, the updated Nissan Sentra, which has been on a sales tear of late, had a sales drop of over 15 percent over July and nearly 9 percent over August 2014. For the year, though, the Sentra is still beating last year’s number by 9 percent.
In the German camp, the Volkswagen Jetta’s sales are down across the board, while the, Golf, although still selling in fewer numbers than the Jetta, is seeing huge gains. The Golf has been updated to the latest VW platform, while the Jetta still rides on the old platform. A new Jetta isn’t coming until the 2017 model year.
The Chevrolet Cruze saw huge drops of over 30 percent from both last month and August 2014. The new Cruze, which is due for the 2016 model year, should help sales as the current model is getting pretty outdated.
Speaking of outdated, the Mitsubishi Lancer still keeps increasing sales a little at a time, although its total sales for the year is still a little more than a third of what the Civic sold this month alone.
Compact Car Sales – August 2015
| Aug 2015 # | Aug ’15/July ’15 % | Aug ’15/’14 % | YTD 2015 # | YTD ’15/’14 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honda Civic | 32,031 | 3.7% | -5.9% | 221,471 | -4.2% |
| Toyota Corolla | 31,726 | 4.9% | -4.1% | 252,106 | 5.8% |
| Hyundai Elantra | 22,405 | 1.2% | -1.9% | 173,238 | 10.0% |
| Ford Focus | 16,321 | -4.1% | -26.1% | 150,427 | -6.4% |
| Nissan Sentra | 15,662 | -15.4% | -8.8% | 140,074 | 8.9% |
| Chevrolet Cruze | 14,661 | -31.3% | -37.4% | 163,938 | -13.6% |
| VW Jetta | 11,002 | -4.8% | -17.9% | 87,047 | -35.0% |
| Mazda3 | 10,161 | 6.9% | -6.5% | 74,543 | 3.0% |
| VW Golf | 7,075 | 5.3% | 86.2% | 44,516 | 151.3% |
| Subaru Impreza | 7,074 | -30.9% | 19.1% | 44,907 | 5.9% |
| Kia Forte | 6,862 | -12.8% | 19.2% | 57,902 | 17.5% |
| Dodge Dart | 6,154 | 4.9% | -27.0% | 61,075 | 13.0% |
| Mitsubishi Lancer | 1,240 | 2.9% | 13.1% | 13,154 | 18.3% |
Check out this TFLcar mashup review of 2014 versions of the Mazda 3, Honda Civic, Kia Forte and Toyota Corolla:
