Despite a slip near the end of the year that let the Toyota Corolla catch up, the Honda Civic held on to be the compact car sales champion for 2016.
The Civic also took the December sales crown, beating out the Corolla by 2,000 sales to end the year with a 6,000-sale win over its closest rival.
The all-new Civic was also one of the best performers of the year, beating its 2015 sales total by 9.4 percent. Only the Kia Forte and the Scion iM/Toyota Corolla iM had higher gains, and the iM was only sold for part of the year in 2015, which explains the exaggerated increase. Toyota has started combining iM sales with Corolla sales, so next year the Corolla’s sales should increase.
Corolla sales were nearly flat for the year, with a loss of less than one percent. The overall third place Nissan Sentra also had a strong year with a 5.5 percent increase.
The Chevrolet Cruze had an up-and-down year. Sales were slow early in the year, but picked up after the new model was introduced and had time for production to ramp up. Overall sales were down, but a strong fourth quarter bodes well for its 2017 sales.
Hyundai’s Elantra, the company’s top seller, also had an up-and-down year. Some months, the Elantra’s sales were up, and some months it was down. Although it was the last car on the list to hit 200,000 in sales, it ended up down nearly 14 percent over 2015.
Taking away the exaggerated iM stats, the Kia Forte was the big winner with a 31 percent increase, helping Kia to record sales for the year.
No surprise, the Dodge Dart, which is officially no longer in production, was the worst performer with a 51 percent drop over 2015.
Compact Car Sales – December 2016
| Dec 2016 # | Nov 2016 # | Dec ’16/Nov ’16 % | Dec 2016/2015 | YTD 2016 # | YTD 2016/2015 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honda Civic | 31,482 | 25,303 | 24.4% | -4.0% | 366,927 | 9.4% |
| Toyota Corolla | 29,402 | 26,747 | 9.9% | -9.4% | 360,483 | -0.8% |
| Hyundai Elantra | 19,556 | 15,796 | 23.8% | 37.3% | 208,319 | -13.8% |
| Chevrolet Cruze | 17,324 | 16,414 | 5.5% | 2.8% | 188,876 | -16.6% |
| Nissan Sentra | 17,037 | 14,028 | 21.4% | -13.8% | 214,709 | 5.5% |
| VW Jetta | 13,079 | 10,212 | 28.1% | -7.1% | 121,107 | -7.6% |
| Ford Focus | 10,242 | 9,130 | 12.2% | -6.9% | 168,789 | -16.6% |
| VW Golf | 8,969 | 6,484 | 38.3% | 56.9% | 61,687 | -5.5% |
| Mazda Mazda3 | 8,102 | 6,388 | 26.8% | -14.6% | 95,567 | -11.1% |
| Kia Forte | 7,560 | 8,111 | -6.8% | 39.7% | 103,292 | 30.9% |
| Subaru Impreza | 5,126 | 2,032 | 152.3% | -15.4% | 55,238 | -17.3% |
| Subaru WRX | 2,938 | 2,591 | 13.4% | -4.9% | 33,279 | -1.4% |
| Scion iM/Toyota Corolla iM | 1,807 | 1,515 | 19.3% | 45.1% | 17,727 | 247.8% |
| Dodge Dart | 1,525 | 2,203 | -30.8% | -74.0% | 43,402 | -51.0% |
| Buick Verano | 1,038 | 1,535 | -32.4% | -59.2% | 30,277 | -5.0% |
| Mitsubishi Lancer | 860 | 884 | -2.7% | -35.0% | 14,034 | -20.7% |
Check out this related TFLcar video of the new Chevy Cruze hatchback:
