Honda did something very right with the new Civic, and customers agree as it again took the compact car sales crown in June.
The Civic, which has had strong sales all year, was up nearly 11 percent over June 2015 and is up nearly 20 percent for the year. It narrowly missed the overall sales lead, losing out to the Toyota Camry by 700 sales.
The evergreen Toyota Corolla kept pace with the Civic, with only about 900 fewer sales than the leader. Sales grew one percent for the month, but are down more than four percent for the year. Still, the Civic and Corolla are number two and three behind the Camry as the best-selling cars in the land, both for the month and for the year.
Third and fourth places also stay the same, as the Hyundai Elantra beat out the Nissan Sentra for the final podium spot, although how they got there is completely different. The Elantra’s sales are down for the month and year, while the Sentra had double-digit gains on both metrics.
Further down the list, the only other cars to have net gains over 2015 are the Kia Forte, which has performed well all year, and the Subaru WRX. Had Subaru not separated the WRX from the Impreza line, the WRX’s increase would have more than made up for the Impreza’s drop.
Like its larger sibling, the Chrysler 200, the Dodge Dart’s sales continue to fall off a cliff, down 51 and 41 percent for the month and year, respectively. Fiat Chrysler already said that they would decrease production of both cars to focus on crossovers – Jeeps, specifically – and that both models wouldn’t be replaced once their model runs are over.
Compact Car Sales – June 2016
| June 2016 # | May 2016 # | June ’16/May ’16 % | June 2016/2015 | YTD 2016 # | YTD 2016/2015 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honda Civic | 31,810 | 35,396 | -10.1% | 10.7% | 189,840 | 19.9% |
| Toyota Corolla | 30,950 | 34,872 | -11.2% | 1.0% | 182,193 | -4.2% |
| Hyundai Elantra | 22,414 | 22,168 | 1.1% | -15.8% | 96,306 | -25.2% |
| Nissan Sentra | 20,721 | 20,204 | 2.6% | 20.5% | 123,014 | 16.2% |
| Ford Focus | 19,491 | 17,455 | 11.7% | -11.6% | 103,144 | -11.9% |
| Chevrolet Cruze | 18,666 | 16,671 | 12.0% | -17.6% | 86,731 | -32.2% |
| Kia Forte | 9,170 | 9,910 | -7.5% | 16.0% | 52,742 | 22.1% |
| VW Jetta | 8,617 | 10,945 | -21.3% | -22.2% | 58,279 | -13.0% |
| Mazda 3 | 8,399 | 10,127 | -17.1% | -9.2% | 51,381 | -6.4% |
| Subaru Impreza | 4,994 | 5,928 | -15.8% | -1.4% | 29,765 | -4.9% |
| VW Golf | 4,606 | 4,475 | 2.9% | -25.0% | 26,322 | -14.3% |
| Dodge Dart | 3,305 | 4,514 | -26.8% | -51.0% | 29,079 | -41.0% |
| Subaru WRX | 3,130 | 2,327 | 34.5% | 44.5% | 16,006 | 6.5% |
| Buick Verano | 2,025 | 2,070 | -2.2% | -12.7% | 14,719 | -16.4% |
| Scion iM | 1,570 | 1,743 | -9.9% | NEW | 9,081 | NEW |
| Mitsubishi Lancer | 1,028 | 929 | 10.7% | -18.0% | 8,434 | -20.6% |
Check out this related TFLcar video review of one of the newest models in the class, the 2016 Chevrolet Cruze:
