After losing out in April to the Honda Civic, the Toyota Camry regains its top sales spot in May, and also leads midsize car sales.
Toyota sold nearly 37,000 Camrys in May, enough to beat the Civic by 1,600 and dominate the second-place Honda Accord by almost 5,000. Despite the sales win, the Camry’s sales are down 15.8 percent for the month and 6.3 percent for the year.
May was an especially difficult month across the board, as there were fewer sales days than in 2015, so nearly every car saw sales drops. The Accord fared better than most, only dropping 1.3 percent, and yearly sales are up nearly 10 percent.
Two other cars saw sales gains over May 2015. The new and much, much improved Chevrolet Malibu was up 12.8 percent for the month and is also up 28.2 percent for the year, the top performer in both categories. Subaru Legacy sales were also up 5.3 percent and 2.8 percent for the month and year, respectively.
The rest of the field except for the Mazda 6 had double-digit losses, and the 6 was close with a 9.9 percent drop. The Kia Optima and the Buick Regal were off more than 30 percent. And the poor Chrysler 200, ostensibly abandoned by its own company, is down a staggering 62 percent for the month and the year.
Midsize Car Sales – May 2016
| May 2016 # | Apr 2016 # | May ’16/Apr ’16 % | May 2016/2015 | YTD 2016 # | YTD 2016/2015 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota Camry | 36,916 | 34,039 | 8.5% | -15.8% | 167,199 | -6.3% |
| Honda Accord | 31,949 | 31,526 | 1.3% | -1.3% | 140,548 | 9.6% |
| Nissan Altima | 28,404 | 28,484 | -0.3% | -15.5% | 142,220 | -0.3% |
| Ford Fusion | 24,589 | 20,730 | 18.6% | -21.5% | 120,313 | -5.8% |
| Chevrolet Malibu | 24,202 | 21,763 | 11.2% | 12.8% | 104,187 | 28.2% |
| Hyundai Sonata | 15,879 | 15,211 | 4.4% | -11.9% | 92,547 | 14.8% |
| Kia Optima | 10,895 | 11,224 | -2.9% | -33.4% | 51,887 | -21.9% |
| Chrysler 200 | 7,600 | 7,591 | 0.1% | -62.0% | 33,164 | -62.0% |
| VW Passat | 7,129 | 5,629 | 26.6% | -12.8% | 26,821 | -23.8% |
| Subaru Legacy | 5,265 | 5,591 | -5.8% | 5.3% | 25,334 | 2.8% |
| Mazda Mazda6 | 5,027 | 3,929 | 27.9% | -9.9% | 19,239 | -34.2% |
| Buick Regal | 1,228 | 1,306 | -6.0% | -32.9% | 8,071 | 2.7% |
Check out this TFLcar video of the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu, the most improved car of the year so far, as it compares to the 2015 version:
