Year-to-date, the Toyota Camry leads the Accord by 35,045 units heading into September. For the Accord to overtake the Camry, the Accord’s margin of victory in each of the remaining four months on the calendar would have to be even stronger than it was in August, the first time since February that the Camry wasn’t America’s top-selling car.
The leader in February, Nissan’s Altima, is America’s fourth-best-selling car so far this year and the fifth-ranked car in August. Altima volume rose 4% last month. Sales of the next-best-selling Ford Fusion jumped 20% in August, rising to 29,452. Ford is on pace to sell more than 310,000 Fusions in 2014, the first year in which Fusion sales will have climbed above 300,000 units.
|
Rank |
Auto |
August
2014 |
August
2013 |
%
Change |
8 mos.
2014 |
8 mos.
2013 |
%
Change |
|
#1 |
Honda Accord | 51,075 | 38,559 | 32.5% | 271,426 | 256,926 | 5.6% |
|
#2 |
Toyota Camry | 44,043 | 44,713 | -1.5% | 306,471 | 287,119 | 6.7% |
|
#3 |
Honda Civic | 34,032 | 39,458 | -13.8% | 231,167 | 230,578 | 0.3% |
|
#4 |
Toyota Corolla/Matrix | 33,088 | 26,861 | 23.2% | 238,275 | 210,296 | 13.3% |
|
#5 |
Nissan Altima | 32,153 | 30,976 | 3.8% | 235,260 | 228,297 | 3.0% |
|
#6 |
Ford Fusion | 29,452 | 24,653 | 19.5% | 218,892 | 206,321 | 6.1% |
|
#7 |
Chevrolet Cruze | 23,435 | 23,909 | -2.0% | 189,699 | 183,045 | 3.6% |
|
#8 |
Hyundai Elantra | 22,845 | 24,700 | -7.5% | 157,555 | 174,902 | -9.9% |
|
#9 |
Ford Focus | 22,079 | 20,372 | 8.4% | 160,759 | 171,921 | -6.5% |
|
#10 |
Hyundai Sonata | 21,092 | 16,917 | 24.7% | 150,016 | 138,830 | 8.1% |
America’s fifth-best-selling midsize car in August was the Hyundai Sonata, the tenth-ranked car overall. Sonata volume jumped 25% year-over-year and its year-to-date 8% improvement outpaces the gains made by all its better-selling rivals.
There is a faster-rising small car, however. Toyota Corolla sales shot up 23% in August and have risen 13% so far this year. The Corolla leads the Honda Civic by 7108 sales heading into September, a slight decrease from the lead it held a month ago after the Civic finished August with a 944-unit gap. Civic sales plunged 14% compared with August 2013. But it’s worth remembering that the Civic’s results at this time a year ago were an anomaly: August 2013 Civic volume was 22% better than any other Civic sales month in 2013.
With the Civic’s decrease and the Honda CR-V’s slight 2% drop, plus declines reported by the CR-Z, Fit, Insight, Crosstour, Pilot, and Ridgeline, the Accord carried Honda in August. Honda brand sales rose 1.5% year-over-year; 5.2% on a daily selling rate basis. The Accord generated 33.7% of Honda sales, up from 25.8% a year ago and 28.4% in July of this year. The Toyota brand relied on the Camry for a comparatively small 21.3% of its August volume.