The much-improved Honda Civic returned to form in March, taking the compact car sales lead back from the Toyota Corolla and increasing its yearly lead.
Civic sales were up nearly 22 percent from March 2015 and is the biggest yearly gainer in the segment with a near-31 percent increase. It was also the best-selling Honda in March, something it has done before since the redesign and is a pretty big deal, as the Accord and CR-V have been typically the company’s best sellers.
The Corolla‘s sales were down in March, dropping 8.4 percent month-over-month. Sales are also down for the year, but none of the other vehicles are even close to the top two in overall sales.
March sales numbers in the segment took an interesting trend. For the majority of the cars on the list, sales were either up by a lot, like the Civic, Nissan Sentra and Kia Forte, or down by a lot, like the Hyundai Elantra, Chevrolet Cruze and the Dodge Dart. Only a few have relatively stable sales numbers.
The Elantra’s sales may be down as the car transitioned to the 2017 model, so expect sales to return to normal as supply increases throughout the year. The Elantra was the brand’s top seller in 2015.
It’s been a tough month for Mazda, as they have seen most of their models’ sales drop. The excellent Mazda 3, one of the best cars in the segment, was down more than 30 percent for the month and is down 19 percent for the year. Mitsubishi’s aging Lancer had its sales drop for the month as well, but it still managed to sell better than the Scion iM, which will be called the Toyota Corolla iM in 2017.
Compact Car Sales – March 2016
| Mar 2016 # | Feb 2016 # | Mar ’16/Feb ’16 % | Mar 2016/2015 | YTD 2016 # | YTD 2016/2015 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honda Civic | 32,855 | 27,707 | 18.6% | 21.8% | 87,303 | 30.8% |
| Toyota Corolla | 32,556 | 29,342 | 11.0% | -8.4% | 84,260 | -7.1% |
| Nissan Sentra | 26,201 | 20,599 | 27.2% | 23.1% | 62,944 | 23.4% |
| Ford Focus | 18,618 | 18,620 | 0.0% | -9.2% | 50,215 | -5.2% |
| Hyundai Elantra | 17,505 | 11,973 | 46.2% | -39.2% | 39,363 | -30.6% |
| VW Jetta | 10,471 | 9,375 | 11.7% | -9.6% | 28,023 | -10.6% |
| Kia Forte | 10,406 | 8,187 | 27.1% | 38.0% | 23,922 | 22.6% |
| Chevrolet Cruze | 9,881 | 12,998 | -24.0% | -58.1% | 37,241 | -38.5% |
| Mazda 3 | 7,307 | 7,275 | 0.4% | -30.6% | 22,133 | -18.9% |
| Dodge Dart | 5,349 | 6,771 | -21.0% | -44.0% | 16,868 | -33.0% |
| Subaru Impreza | 5,193 | 4,432 | 17.2% | -3.2% | 14,007 | -8.4% |
| VW Golf | 4,495 | 3,645 | 23.3% | -3.2% | 12,133 | -4.9% |
| Subaru WRX | 2,737 | 1,997 | 37.1% | 10.8% | 7,453 | 2.6% |
| Buick Verano | 2,300 | 3,066 | -25.0% | -19.7% | 8,225 | -9.4% |
| Mitsubishi Lancer | 1,934 | 1,997 | -3.2% | -20.2% | 5,454 | -9.7% |
| Scion iM | 1,659 | 1,317 | 26.0% | NEW | 4,226 | NEW |
Check out this TFLcar MPG review video of the sales-leading 2016 Honda Civic:
