The Toyota Corolla crept a little closer to the Honda Civic, taking the compact car sales crown for October and closing the yearly gap to less than 4,000.
The Corolla had a sales gain of 2 percent over October 2015, and sales for the year are nearly flat with a less than 1 percent loss. The monthly gain is big news in a month where most manufacturers’ sales were down, and where only four compact cars on the list showed gains.
The Civic, which has led compact car sales for nearly the entire year, was down 5 percent over October 2015, although for the year, it’s still up nearly 12 percent.
Both cars have run away from the rest of the pack, though. They have both eclipsed the 300,000 sales mark when no other competitor has even hit 200,000.
The Chevy Cruze continued its climb up the charts, supplanting the Hyundai Elantra to take third place with a 9 percent gain for the month. This was the second highest gain behind the hot-selling Kia Forte, which showed a gain of more than 54 percent for the month, but on much lower volume. Chevy sold two Cruzes for every Forte in October.
The Forte’s cousin, the Hyundai Elantra, was the only other competitor to show a gain in monthly sales with a near-flat 0.3 percent gain.
Despite production ending in September, sales of the Dodge Dart weren’t too far off September sales, with only 190 fewer Darts finding homes. However, it’s been the biggest loser all year, and even poor performances by the Ford Focus and Subaru Impreza could stop its losing streak, with sales down 63 percent from a year ago.
Compact Car Sales – October 2016
| Oct 2016 # | Sept 2016 # | Oct ’16/Sept ’16 % | Oct 2016/2015 | YTD 2016 # | YTD 2016/2015 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota Corolla | 28,516 | 31,167 | -8.5% | 2.0% | 304,334 | -0.8% |
| Honda Civic | 26,359 | 28,184 | -6.5% | -5.1% | 310,142 | 11.7% |
| Chevrolet Cruze | 17,126 | 15,216 | 12.6% | 9.0% | 155,138 | -19.9% |
| Hyundai Elantra | 15,917 | 19,382 | -17.9% | 0.3% | 172,967 | -17.6% |
| Nissan Sentra | 14,168 | 13,670 | 3.6% | -5.4% | 183,644 | 8.5% |
| Ford Focus | 9,368 | 11,160 | -16.1% | -43.0% | 149,417 | -17.1% |
| VW Jetta | 8,068 | 8,299 | -2.8% | -5.6% | 97,816 | -7.7% |
| Kia Forte | 8,013 | 8,256 | -2.9% | 54.2% | 87,621 | 27.9% |
| Mazda Mazda3 | 6,946 | 7,350 | -5.5% | -16.7% | 81,077 | -10.6% |
| VW Golf | 5,137 | 4,585 | 12.0% | -10.1% | 46,235 | -16.7% |
| Subaru Impreza | 3,010 | 4,786 | -37.1% | -43.6% | 48,080 | -13.8% |
| Subaru WRX | 2,579 | 2,683 | -3.9% | -14.4% | 27,750 | -1.5% |
| Dodge Dart | 2,407 | 2,597 | -7.3% | -63.0% | 39,674 | -47.0% |
| Buick Verano | 2,336 | 3,929 | -40.5% | -13.3% | 27,704 | 0.0% |
| Scion iM/Toyota Corolla iM | 1,219 | 1,105 | 10.3% | -13.4% | 14,403 | NEW |
| Mitsubishi Lancer | 1,021 | 923 | 10.6% | -6.0% | 12,560 | -18.2% |
Check out this TFLcar video of the all-new 2017 Toyota Corolla:
