There are the movers and shakers in each sales report, then there are the “zombie cars”.
You know how some folks out there still manage to find a new Dodge Viper years after it went out of production? You always find some gems like that in every big-ticket sales report, and automakers just released their first-half results for 2023.
There are some surprises on there. For example, you guys apparently love the Chevy Camaro now that it’s going out of production, increasing its year-to-date sales by 54% over the first six months of 2022. But it’s also fun to see which of you, among all the options out there in today’s car market, buy cars that are no longer in regular production.
Here are some examples of zombie cars in the first half of this year:
Toyota Avalon: 43 units
We’ll kick things off with a contender that’s not spectacularly surprising. Toyota phased out its full-size Avalon sedan for the “rebooted” sixteenth-generation Toyota Crown. It’s not a name that we Americans are familiar with, but it is one of the most iconic names for one of the world’s largest automakers.
While the new Crown tries to split the difference between your run-of-the-mill sedan and higher-riding crossover, the Avalon more or less gave you a modern take on the old-school, spacious, cushy sedans that have largely fallen out of favor in today’s market. Still, it was a thoroughly nice car and folks probably found some deals on remaining new inventory, since production ceased after the 2022 model year.
Ford GT: 31 units
Now, those who’ve been following the second-generation Ford GT know that production ended last year after supplier Multimatic produced 1,350 units. What’s surprising here, though, is that a fair few are still out there in the wild, just looking for buyers. Sure, the 31 units Ford sold in the first half of 2023 represent a 47% drop from this time last year (when Ford sold 58 units).
Just one person bought a brand-new Ford GT between April and June 2022, suggesting that new units are rarer by the day and the only chance you’ll have moving forward is to buy one second-hand. At any rate, these cost at least $500,000 to buy new, so getting one that’s already in someone’s hands…you’ll probably spend far more than that.
Dodge Journey: 12 units
…Really?
Somehow, some way, exactly a dozen brand-new Dodge Journeys were sitting on lots, and those units found buyers in the first six months of the year. Again, I just have to ask, “Why?”.
I’m assuming (and hoping) the folks who landed one of these cars got incredible deals. The major selling point for the Journey was that it was cheap…and that’s about it. Rocking a 2.4-liter “World” engine — you know, the same one that was in the Chrysler PT Cruiser — and a four-speed automatic transmission, the Journey was about as old-school as you could get in 2020, when it went out of production. Yes, 2020…this car has been out of production for nearly three years and people are still buying them brand-new!
Seriously, if you’re shopping new, you’re better off buying anything else. If you’re looking for a budget family hauler, look into the Mitsubishi Outlander: It’s one of the cheapest new options around at the moment, and the new one’s a damn sight better than the Journey ever was. If you want to stay within the Stellantis umbrella, you’ll admittedly have to shell out more cash to pick up a Jeep Grand Cherokee L or a Dodge Durango if you want a three-row SUV.
Hyundai Veloster: 6 units
While there’s not much love lost with the Dodge Journey’s departure, I still feel a tinge of sadness whenever the Hyundai Veloster comes up in conversation. It didn’t roll off into the history books because it was a terrible car. Quite the contrary: The Veloster Turbo and N models are fantastic hot hatches for the enthusiasts out there.
Some may disagree, but my take is that the Veloster just fell victim to a changing world. Not only are folks not buying hatchbacks en masse, but Hyundai continues to shift more and more resources toward electrification. The Veloster, at least in its now-defunct form, didn’t really fit into the plan moving forward.
Acura NSX: 5 units
Another sad departure: The Acura NSX ended its production run with the 2022 model year. We do have the new Integra (and its Type S variant) as Acura’s de facto halo model, but there’s no replacing the icon.
Still, 5 folks managed to find one so far this year…but none in the past month. Compare that to last year, where 123 people bought NSXs in the first six months, including 36 in June alone. Again, we’re faced with a Ford GT situation where the only way to grab an NSX is to buy one second-hand.
Toyota Land Cruiser: 4 units (including 1 in June)
Land Cruiser fans have been getting some good news recently, because we will once again see the nameplate here in North America…but not as we knew it before. Rather than the full-size 300 Series, we’re getting something closer to the new Lexus GX. We’ll see what Toyota has up its sleeve in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, some folks have still managed to find new 200 Series Land Cruisers up for sale.
In fact, four such people bought new (and by that I mean old) Land Cruisers so far this year. One person managed to lock down a deal on one last month, and I genuinely want to know the how and why on that one. Was it just seizing an opportunity when you happened upon it, were you actively looking for a 200 Series out of nostalgia? Were you hoping they would appreciate since we’re not getting the 300 Series?
Hey, good on you for still finding a new one since they’ve been out of production for awhile. I’m not knocking the decision at all — like the others, it’s intriguing that you guys are still finding new examples so Toyota can report that single sale in last month’s figures.
Not that it means much to the automaker’s bottom line, in the grand scheme of things. Last month, Toyota also sold 38,250 RAV4s. So far this year, it’s sold 187,017 RAV4s to its, ahem…four Land Cruisers.
Fiat 500L: 3 units
Yep, it’s another (not-so-dearly) departed Stellantis product. Now, Fiat does still have one car in the U.S. market — the 500X crossover — but there was a time not so long ago when it actually had a portfolio of vehicles. Among those, the 500L stuck out like a sore thumb. It’s gawky, it’s goofy, and you can tell it’s trying a little too hard to play on the charms of the altogether more endearing 500 hatchback.
The Fiat 500L aimed to be a more practical wagon that folks could turn to when they needed the space. Trouble is, not many did…and that’s a huge reason why it went out of production in the first place. To anonymously quote one of my colleagues in the TFL office: “Good riddance”.
Despite the MPV’s years-long absence from our market, three folks did still manage to pick up a new one and land on FCA’s half-year sales chart in 2023. Fiat as a whole has been struggling in America for years, with each quarterly report looking more bleak than the last. In the same six-month period wherein three people bought 500Ls, 278 bought the more conventional 500X…which still isn’t that great, honestly.
Here’s to hoping the new 500e (and perhaps the larger 600e?) will reverse the brand’s fortunes here in the U.S. Fiat does make some charming little cars like the OG 500 hatch and the 124 Spider. It just seriously missed the mark with the 500L.
Acura ILX: 2 units
Despite what I considered a decently sharp-looking facelift for the 2019 model year, there’s no hiding the Acura ILX’s true identity as a dressed-up Civic. Now, the new Acura Integra plays the same game with the eleventh-generation Honda Civic, but it also brings a far more powerful nameplate to the mix. While it logically fit into the brand’s alphabetical naming scheme, “ILX” just didn’t carry the brand cachet that older names in Acura’s lineup have.
You want another case in point? Acura killed the RLX, its flagship sedan, leaving a full-size void that it could perfectly fill with a new Legend. Acura trademarked the name again a few years ago, but who knows if that will actually happen.
Regardless, to the two folks who bought a new ILX, I wish you the best with your purchase. It’s still a good value-focused luxury car, but the Integra is a solid evolution that’s just better across the board. To wit, 16,514 people did buy Integras so far this year: A 1,000% increase over last year, when it first launched.
Dodge Caravan: 2 units
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, isn’t it?
If you haven’t noticed just yet, Stellantis makes quite a few entries in the “zombie car” list for the first-half of 2023 (this isn’t the last one model you’ll see, either). It’s not that minivans have died off or anything like that. You can still buy a Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, Kia Carnival or…oh yeah, the Chrysler Pacifica!
If you want something that reminds you what minivan life was like in the late-oughts, though, you could make like one of the two folks who managed to find a brand-new Caravan. Like the Journey, Dodge killed it off back in 2020 to make way for its new performance-minded image, spearheaded by the soon-to-depart Challenger and Charger.
While two people were really determined to buy a Caravan (I may sound presumptuous here, but I’m hoping they were available at a steep discount), many more people went the Chrysler route instead. In the first six months of this year, some 73,845 Pacificas found customers: a 26% increase over the same period last year. So minivans certainly aren’t dead, but the Caravan is. Or at least should be, when these zombie units finally make their way out of dealer inventories.
Alfa Romeo 4C, Chrysler 200, Honda Insight and Fiat 500: 1 unit each (4-way tie)
Again, out of all the cars you guys can buy in the U.S., you guys just have to be special and buy long-gone cars…mostly from Stellantis’ former lineup. Interesting that the automaker actually landed three of the four spots on this four-way, one-unit tie, with the outlier being the equally dead Honda Insight.
The Alfa Romeo 4C, for its part, was always going to be a low-volume sports car. It catered well to enthusiasts, but even iconic Italian brands need more sales to survive in today’s market, which is exactly why you’ll see thousands of Giulias and Stelvios for every 4C. They’re more practical, and the new Tonale even brings in plug-in hybrid technology, to take things a step further. Still, the brand hasn’t forgotten its enthusiast roots, as it seems keen to bring a brand-new sports car into the fold on August 30.
The Chrysler 200, Fiat 500 and Honda Insight all share a common thread: an ever-changing market. They all existed to fill segments that were reasonably popular in the early 2000s, be it a midsize sedan, efficient hybrid or a fun, retro-styled hatch. Each models’ sales flagged over time, though, and in Honda’s case it made more sense to market a compact hybrid car under a more potent name, like the Civic. We should see the Civic Hybrid make its appearance state-side for the 2024 model year.
(Bonus) Nissan GT-R, because you can’t kill Godzilla: 217 units
The Nissan GT-R isn’t dead yet. But boy, does it feel like it should be by now. The current R35 generation has been in production since late 2007 — 2007! — with no imminent end in sight. Granted, we keep saying every year, “Oh, Nissan will definitely drop the GT-R and bring in a replacement this year…”. That hasn’t happened: Instead, the automaker just refreshed it for 2024 instead.
Hey, if people are still buying it, right? Apparently, the facelift did the trick, as GT-R sales actually increased by a staggering 302% this year. Joking aside, the R35 really can’t last forever thanks to emissions regulations (despite Nissan’s tireless efforts to keep Godzilla alive), but since we don’t have confirmation of the R36 or what to expect yet, this is the only GT-R you can buy.
