The Toyota Camry is the best-selling midsize sedan in the country but came in fourth overall behind the top three compact crossovers.
The Camry had nearly 33,000 sales for August, but still couldn’t beat out the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4 and the Nissan Rogue for the monthly lead. Sales were down more than 12 percent over August of 2015 and are down nearly nine percent for the year, although it’s still the overall leader.
The Camry narrowly beat out the compact Honda Civic for the month, which has been its closest competitor all year. However, it has such a large lead for the year – 11,000 more than the Civic – that it would take either a catastrophic performance by the Camry or a heroic performance from one of the top five for it to lose the overall sales crown for 2016
The Honda Accord came in second, but also had a down month with a 26 percent drop for the month. Overall, sales are about flat over last year.
Further down the list, only two cars – the Subaru Legacy and the Buick Regal – sold more than in August of 2015. The Chrysler 200 is again the worst of the losers, with a 66 percent drop over last year. It’s also the biggest loser for the year with a 64 percent drop overall.
It’s been a bad year overall for the midsize sedan segment. Along with the poor August performance, only four have net gains, and that includes the 0.1 percent increase for the Accord. The best performer for the year so far is the all-new Chevrolet Malibu, which is up more than 14 percent for the year. Adding up all the vehicles tracked by TFLcar, compact crossovers lead midsize sedans by nearly 400,000 sales.
Midsize Sedan Sales – August 2016
| Aug 2016 # | July 2016 # | Aug ’16/July ’16 % | Aug 2016/2015 | YTD 2016 # | YTD 2016/2015 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota Camry | 32,864 | 34,122 | -3.7% | -12.6% | 266,746 | -8.6% |
| Honda Accord | 30,115 | 31,946 | -5.7% | -26.4% | 231,415 | 0.1% |
| Nissan Altima | 19,646 | 24,949 | -21.3% | -39.2% | 217,290 | -8.8% |
| Ford Fusion | 19,052 | 24,007 | -20.6% | -32.6% | 189,892 | -8.1% |
| Chevrolet Malibu | 16,723 | 11,820 | 41.5% | -4.7% | 148,868 | 14.4% |
| Hyundai Sonata | 14,888 | 20,635 | -27.9% | -31.8% | 139,932 | -1.2% |
| Kia Optima | 9,470 | 9,780 | -3.2% | -32.3% | 80,317 | -24.6% |
| VW Passat | 7,389 | 6,549 | 12.8% | -0.3% | 46,751 | -17.3% |
| Subaru Legacy | 5,800 | 5,212 | 11.3% | 35.5% | 41,369 | 9.0% |
| Chrysler 200 | 4,210 | 5,474 | -23.1% | -66.0% | 45,983 | -64.0% |
| Mazda Mazda6 | 4,006 | 4,341 | -7.7% | -25.8% | 31,810 | -25.2% |
| Buick Regal | 2,205 | 2,307 | -4.4% | 52.1% | 13,765 | 11.2% |
Check out this TFLcar video of the 2016 Chevy Malibu compared to the older 2014 version:
