http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/01/t...10/#more-381104

I've mentioned this a bunch of times over the years but here are the actual RETAIL sales (to consumers) as compared to the overall sales for the year. This is a far better reflection of how well the car is doing with the public than just overall sales.

Kind of scary that a car as good as the Fusion is still selling 31% of its total sales to fleets. The Impala wasn't a surprise but still, that's a whopping fleet sale percentage. It also goes to show how Toyota has fallen in their overall rankings with the public while the Sonata has very low fleet sales comparatively (only behind the Accord and Civic, overall)!

I'm a pretty big Ford fan these days (love their styling and options and am hoping their new motors prove reliable, given their improved power and efficiency) but I have to admit that this seems to indicate that the public isn't quite buying as much of their smaller vehicles as initially thought.

Thoughts and comments?

 

not really all that surprising. I would be interested to also see the percent change from last year or 5 years ago.

 

But car talk told me that Honda was in the shitter.

 

Camry and Accord are tied EXACTLY on retail sales? Coincidence?

 

Imagine how much better the Accord would do if it wasn't ugly!

 

At least the brakes work, right?

 

 

When I hear of Impala, I'd think of popo cars.

 

I had a 2010 Malibu (998 miles on the ODO) as a rental in Miami. I would rather drive a 10 year old civic. It was literally a pile of sh1t. I have since cancelled all my magazine subscriptions. I could not believe the car wrags said the "Malibu is a great car and on par with Accord/Camry." It's not even on par with a 12 year old Accord/Camry, let alone a new one.

However, I did have a rental fusion, and thought that Ford is headed in the right direction. I usually get fords when I rent in Europe, and was always amazed how much better European fords are.

I really wish GM went bankrupt and the government gave incentive to other car makers to scoop up their infrastructure and keep it afloat.

 

I spent a lot of time looking for a new family car and drove most of those and more... talked to alot of people.

It seems to me that a lot of sales are made based upon second hand knowledge... I am really surprised how many people make a purchase decision based upon ratings, a recommendation from someone else and a price. Different than many of us that have to do a lot of test drives.

We recently bought a Sonata Limited Turbo to replace a Maxima that served as family trasportation for 13 years.