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HCH-II, Mini and the Yaris show their popularity with nice sales increases. (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15596)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2008_Mini_Cooper_Convertible.jpgWayne Gerdes - CleanMPG (www.cleanmpg.com) - Sept. 4, 2008

The 2008 Mini Cooper Convertible 6-speed MT – 24 mpgUS combined on the 08 EPA.

Style icon, global player, "value master" and now already a classic. Now that around 164,000 Mini Cooper Convertibles have been produced, the MINI Convertible of the current generation has reached the end of its production period. As planned, the MINI plant in Oxford ceased production of the open-top four-seater to make room for increased production MINI and the MINI Clubman.

The final specimen - a MINI Cooper S Convertible Sidewalk painted in metallic White Silver was sold to a MINI fan in the USA early last month. In the land of limousines, the nimble little automobile with the electrically folding soft top has won over a very loyal group of fans. Only on its domestic market of Great Britain and Ireland were more units of the MINI Convertible sold in the past four years than in the USA.

Fortunately, the Convertible is still available but in the form of a much more expensive, high performance Works Clubman Convertible.

Hybrids

Toyota Hybrids had an average month with small sales falloffs but for the fourth month in the row, Prius’ limited supply was blamed on a battery supply constraint. Something is going on with long waits still reported throughout much of the country yet Honda is not having any problems supplying its customers with batteries produced by the same PanasonicEV in Japan? For the second month, the HCH-II had a spectacular month.

The Toyota Prius posted August sales of only 13,463, a fall off of 4.2% from the August 2007 reporting period. With the fourth monthly sales decline in a row, the Prius’ 08 total sales vs. 07 is now down 4.4%.

The Toyota Camry Hybrid achieved sales of 3,456, down 19.3% vs. the August 2007 sales period. Year over year sales have gone negative as well with a 0.6% sales falloff compared to the 2007 sales totals.

The Honda Civic Hybrid proved to be a big hit with consumers for the second month in a row. August sales of 3,105 are up 47.7% compared to the August 2007 sales period. The HCH-II sales are up 17.1% year to date.

The HiHy sold 1,227 units, up 224.6% for the August 2008 vs. a very slow August 2007 comparison period. Year over year, the SUV based hybrid is down 2.0%.

The FEH/MMH twins' showed 1,338 units sold in Aug, a decrease of 27% from the same period a year ago. Sales for the year are also off by 17.3%.

The Lexus RX 400h hybrid reported sales of 1,277 units for the month, up 9.0% vs. the year ago sales period. For the year, sales are also up by 4.3% vs. 2007 year to date total sales.

Overall sales of the Big 6 Hybrid’s above are down for the year by 2.1% even with near record but subsiding oil prices. Whatever the battery supply issue is with Toyota had better be remedied soon or the market as a whole will show a negative sales portrait for the year even while customers are standing in line to purchase Prius’, HCH-II’s and FEH’s.

GM hybrid vehicles saw minor sales of 530 Chevrolet Tahoe, 267 GMC Yukon and 1 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid 2-mode SUVs delivered. There were 388 Chevrolet Malibu, 26 Saturn Aura and 417 Vue hybrids sold in August. For the month, a total of 1,629 hybrid vehicles were delivered, with 7,096 hybrids sold so far this year.

Fuel Efficient Non-Hybrids

The Big 5 fuel efficient non-hybrids sales are still accelerating with a year over year increase of 12.4%. As gasoline prices recede towards $3.50 per gallon, the Honda Civic is slowly accelerating away from the Toyota Corolla for total 2008 sales lead.

The monthly sales leading Honda Civic (including the HCH-II) saw 30,052 units sold in the month, an increase of 5.3% vs. the year-ago period. For the year, Civic sales are up 14.2% vs. 2007 sales YTD.

The Toyota Corolla found 29,443 new owners last month, a decrease of 3.4% vs. the year ago sales period. For the year, the Corolla is down 2.0% vs. the same YTD 07 sales period.

The Toyota Yaris subcompact saw 9,474 units sold in August, an increase of 20.5% vs. the same period a year ago. For the year, Yaris sales are up 31.8% vs. the 2007 YTD sales period.

The Honda Fit is continuing its spectacular sales year but with a hiccup last month possibly due to the second generation just arriving at dealerships across the country. August sales of 4,800 vehicles revealed a falloff of 25.1% vs. August of 2007. For the year, Fit sales are still up 54.9% above the 2007 YTD sales period.

The MINI Cooper had yet another good month with monthly sales of 5,469, up 34.1% compared to the same August period a year ago. For the year, Mini sales are up 32.3% vs. the 2007 YTD sales period.

Smart Fortwo sales are showing a slight slow down by comparison to previous months with 2,420 units sold during the Aug. 2008 time frame.

In Canada, Toyota had a spectacular month of August. Yaris sales at 4,797 were up 64.6% vs. Aug. 2007. Corolla sales of 6,770 units rose 70.7% vs. Aug. 2007. Prius sales jumped 141.1% to 270 vs. Aug. 2007.

August 2008 Hybrid Sales Summary

||Month to Date|||Year to Date|
Make and Model|August 2008|August 2007|DSR* % Change|August 2008|August 2007|DSR* % Change|
Toyota Prius|13,463|14,055|-4.2 %|119,688|124,620|-4.4%
Toyota Camry Hybrid|3,456|4,284|-19.3%|36,633|36,683|-0.6%
Honda Civic Hybrid|3,105|2,102|+47.7%|25,577|21,736|+17.1%
Toyota Highlander Hybrid|1,227|378|+224.6%|15,651|15,895|-2.0%
Ford Escape Hybrid/Mercury Mariner Hybrid|1,338|1,833|-27.0%|14,025|16,883|-17.3%
Lexus RX400h|1,277|1,172|-9.0%|11,754|11,214|+4.3%

August 2008 Fuel Efficient Non-Hybrid Sales Summary

||Month to Date|||Year to Date|
Make and Model|August 2008|August 2007|DSR* % Change|August 2008|August 2007|DSR* % Change|
Honda Civic|30,052|28,551|+5.3%|264,138|230,203|+14.2%
Toyota Corolla|29,443|30,491|-3.4%|258,369|262,431|- 2.0%
Toyota Yaris|9,474|7,861|+20.5%|82,774|62,509|+31.8%
Honda Fit|4,800|6,408|-25.1%|56,853|36,520|+54.9%
Mini Cooper|5,469|4,077|+34.1%|36,932|27,905|+32.3%
Smart Fortwo|2,420|NA|NA|16,378|NA|NA
DSR*: Daily Selling Rate - There were 27 selling days for the August 2007 and 2008 sales period. There were 206 sales days 08 YTD vs. 205 days YTD in 2007.
** Sales Results not yet reported.

Big 5 Manufacturers Overall

For the Manufacturers monthly comparisons, Chrysler sales were off 34%, Ford, Mercury and Lincoln combined sales were off 25.6%, GM sales were down 20.4%, Toyota sales were down 9.4% and even Honda had a somewhat disappointing month, off 7.3% vs. the same period a year ago.

Well... Given the choice of:
-- Prius (48 MPG): Very long waiting list, $24k price, and $3k-$5k additional dealer ripoff
-- Civic (45 MPG): Drive off the lot the same day, $23k price, no extra markup
The Civic is a no-brainer. So I can see why their sales are up and the Prius is down.

Note to Honda: Can't you guys plleeeeeease come out with some cool colors for the HCH?

Yeah.. but, if you check out the mileage logs, very few people here are pulling 45 MPG average with the 08 civic. The average MPG for the 08 HCHII was 49 MPG, but the regular civic was in the upper 30s (I didn't save the spreadsheet with the numbers, sorry).

when do you think VW will break out TDI sales ?


FYI: VW sales up 2.9% in August

Odd that Toyota can't build enough Prius's ? You know how suspicious I am ,and what a Toyota hater I am ,so feel free to ignore my suggestion that Toyota doesn't have a lot of motivation to speed up the delivery of the Prius. I don't think there is much/any $$ for Toyota in selling Prius's to the dealers for what -$19,000 ?? or so (plenty for the dealers of course).

I just don't see much profit for Toyota in the Prius. Yes, Toyota disagrees with me and shows numbers to prove themselves right. I just put our slightly paranoid ideas.

My less paranoid self says that Toyota is concentrating on getting ready to produce lots of the next gen Prius with some plug in capability. It will be their answer to the Volt, so it has to grab/keep market share. They-Toyota -don't want the Volt to get any sales traction . They will suppress Volt sales with the much cheaper next generation Prius with 7-10 mile plug in range. Toyota is pushing their battery supplier to produce and stockpile battery packs for the next Prius. Why bother maxing sales for the current Prius. There isn't any real competition for the Prius (the HCH II is inferior to the Prius when driven casually in city driving). The Prius is "the best"; I agree that the HCHII is a good second choice , but Honda isn't Toyota's competition. GM is the competitor that can steal Toyota's "greeness halo".

Yep, Toyota is putting the battery resources into the next Prius. GM is their "enemy' , not Honda. They will flood the market with the Prius and spike Volt sales. Lower priced gasoline will help Toyota , but in a year a lot can happen. I would bet on $4+ gas in 1.5 years. I wouldn't bet on $2.50 gasoline.

Hey, how is the Focus, and the Cobalt doing? I wonder how many of the new 6 speed taller geared MT Cobalts are being sold?

Wish Ford hadn't dumped the Focus wagon!

Charlie

GM may need to do more than change their marketing like in The Chevy Traverse Ad: What Were They Thinking? (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15567)

Well, having just calculated 44.22 MPG and 45.14 MPG on my last two tanks in my 2009 Toyota Corolla which cost between $5k and $6k less than the Prius or the Civic Hybrid I'm wondering why they declined in sales this year over last... One possible reason might be availability. When I was shopping in late July, one dealership had 2 Corollas, another 3 but two of those were base models with no options. I ended up ordering one and waiting 2 weeks for it to come in.

I couldn't be happier with the 2009 Corolla and really glad I didn't spend the extra money for the hybrid.

Hi sw...,

I have just completed a 65.9 mpg tank after driving in 3 tropical storm remnants, and the tank before that was 70.1 mpg, and the tank before that 68.9 mpg. This was in a Prius.

Lets assume we have similar hypermiling driving performance. In 12000 miles, that is 268.6 - 173.2 = 95.4 gallons or about $400 saved. In ten years, the Prius costs match the Corrolla costs, as long as the Corrolla clutch does not go, thanks to brake jobs, starters and/or alternator repairs in the Corolla, not needed in the Prius. But 954 gallons are saved, and you get more room for the teenagers.

Interesting information donee.

I've only got about 2,000 miles on the Corolla and still learning about how to do this. I've increased MPG by 5 since I started trying to see what the car could do. I am driving 95% of the time on the interstate in a hilly section of Pennsylvania - what is the terrain and driving mix for the 65 and 70 MPG tanks you referenced above for comparison?

The Corolla is an automatic 4 speed model, so I won't have a clutch to worry about going bad. I paid $18k for the Corolla, couldn't find a Prius on the lot for under $26k where I live and they were all used with 10-25k miles on them. Dealer quoted me January 2009 delivery for the Prius if I put money down in late July 2008. So assuming I'd have gotten one for $24k (which is hard to believe with the markups being charged), I need to actually make up more like $6k on fuel savings vs $4k. So based on the calculation above that would take about 15 years to break even between the two (assuming I didn't get a rate of return on the money in the meantime) and I felt after running the numbers that was too long of a gamble to take for the extra money spent up front.

My previous Corolla was a 1997, which I owned from new, with 239k miles on it. It still runs fine and was just sold to a college student. It didn't require a stater, alternator, etc repairs at all over it's life time.

However, you make an excellent point about it not being just a financial decision, the extra gallons spent are significant between the two from an environmental impact perspective. It's an interesting - and complex - decision I think a lot of folks are grappling with today.

The reason Toyota can't make enough cars is because our own congress is stopping them. Toyota was supposed to start building its 9th plant here in the US in 2008, but Congress would not let them. Why, well because our own companies are doing so bad right now, AND toyota and Honda have been so popular that since 2007 they have had to import over 700,000 cars to the US to sell. Don't worry though, Toyota is in the middle of retooling at least 2 of its plants here in the US to make hybrids or fuel efficient vehicles. The only problem is that even though they have doubled production of their hybrid batteries, they still can't meet the demand. There 2nd Generation battery, the Lithium Ion battery is supposed to be much more efficient and they are going to try and produce more then 2 million batteries per year.

I think we're seeing the "calm before the storm" with hybrid sales. Give it a year and let the battery and other component suppliers a chance to catch up and you'll see hybrids everywhere.

At least that's what I'm expecting/hoping for.