The Honda Civic had another strong sales month in November to lead compact cars, but not enough to unseat the Corolla as the year’s top seller.
The Civic’s sales are up 8.6 percent over November 2014, with yearly sales only seeing a slight bump by one percent. The Corolla, on the other hand, is down five and a half percent for the month, but is still up seven percent for the year and is a near lock for the top yearly sales spot.
The surging Hyundai Elantra – the company’s best selling car – stormed into third place with a nearly 26 percent increase over last year. Yearly sales are also up 12 percent.
Domestic brands had a tough November. The Chevy Cruze, Ford Focus and Dodge Dart are all down significantly for the month, and only the Dart is up for the year. The Buick Verano, in its first appearance on the chart (due mostly to indifference) is also down significantly from 2014.
Other strong performers are the Nissan Sentra, Subaru Impreza and VW Golf, which missed the fallout from the ongoing emissions scandal. The Jetta wasn’t so lucky, dropping almost 23 percent from 2014.
November 2015 Compact Car Sales
| Nov 2015 # | Nov ’15/’14 % | YTD 2015 # | YTD ’15/’14 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honda Civic | 25,050 | 8.6% | 302,588 | 1.0% |
| Toyota Corolla | 24,194 | -5.5% | 330,887 | 7.0% |
| Hyundai Elantra | 17,634 | 25.9% | 227,464 | 12.0% |
| Chevrolet Cruze | 16,073 | -29.7% | 209,753 | -17.8% |
| Nissan Sentra | 14,505 | 7.2% | 183,749 | 9.5% |
| Ford Focus | 11,186 | -24.7% | 191,473 | -6.5% |
| VW Jetta | 11,021 | -22.8% | 114,365 | -9.8% |
| Mazda 3 | 7,405 | -4.6% | 98,047 | 2.9% |
| Dodge Dart | 6,190 | -31.0% | 80,661 | 5.0% |
| Kia Forte | 5,010 | -0.7% | 73,508 | 14.8% |
| Subaru Impreza | 4,924 | 90.2% | 60,726 | 16.4% |
| VW Golf | 4,110 | 2.9% | 59,593 | 103.6% |
| Buick Verano | 1,646 | -50.6% | 29,341 | -28.0% |
| Scion iM | 1,091 | NEW | 3,852 | NEW |
| Mitsubishi Lancer | 1,011 | -32.1% | 16,367 | 9.5% |
On the subcompact car side, the Nissan Versa continues its sales domination, proving once again that 133,000 people can be wrong.
On a serious note, Nissan must’ve hit the right notes when it made the Versa, as more people buy that than any other subcompact car. Maybe it’s the Versa’s mix of interior room, low price, fuel economy and completely non-threatening driving dynamics that draw more than twice the second-place leader, the Ford Fiesta.
The Fiesta may be the second best seller for the year, but it’s monthly sales put it squarely in fourth place. The Hyundai Accent surged into second place with a 44 percent jump from November 2014.
The Chevy Sonic barely held onto third place, as sales dropped almost 25 percent for the month and are down almost 35 percent for the year.
The Scion iA burst onto the chart with a strong showing, making it not only the best selling Scion model, but one of the best selling Mazdas, if it had a Mazda badge. It also completely embarrassed parent company Toyota’s Yaris, which sold less than 400 units.
It was a pretty dismal month for tiny cars, as nine of the 11 cars that were sold last year were down, many by large numbers.
November 2015 Subcompact Car Sales
| Nov 2015 # | Nov ’15/’14 % | YTD 2015 # | YTD ’15/’14 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nissan Versa | 9,783 | 5.4% | 133,470 | 2.2% |
| Hyundai Accent | 5,041 | 44.1% | 58,768 | 7.4% |
| Chevrolet Sonic | 3,653 | -24.7% | 57,482 | -34.7% |
| Ford Fiesta | 3,422 | -0.4% | 60,908 | 2.4% |
| Honda Fit | 3,018 | -53.0% | 48,527 | -8.2% |
| Scion iA | 1,785 | NEW | 5,797 | NEW |
| Chevrolet Spark | 1,628 | -43.1% | 31,469 | -13.0% |
| MINI Cooper 2-door | 1,460 | -44.5% | 18,822 | 2.1% |
| MINI Cooper 4-door | 1,325 | NEW | 13,942 | NEW |
| Mitsubishi Mirage | 1,085 | -18.6% | 20,253 | 30.1% |
| Fiat 500 | 968 | -51.0% | 23,583 | -25.0% |
| Kia Rio | 898 | -57.0% | 22,745 | -33.1% |
| Toyota Yaris | 348 | -45.1% | 16,402 | 40.6% |
Check out this TFLcar video of the 2016 Honda Civic:
