Sales
of hybrid and electric vehicles remain modest. And, the creation of
the infrastructure to support the use of these vehicles is
proceeding in fits and starts. In January, hybrid registrations
accounted for just 2.29% of all new vehicle registrations in the
U.S., down from 2.51% a year ago.
Looking at electric vehicle registrations, the good news is that
the January total climbed eight-fold versus January 2011. The bad
news is that the 2012 total was just .8% of the industry. Nissan
Leaf...
An analysis of new vehicle buyers shows that their average age
was 51 years old in 2011, three years older than buyers in 2007. In
2011, 40% of all buyers were aged 55 years or older, up from about
30% just four years earlier. And, in keeping with much commentary
about today’s youth, in 2011, only 11% of all new vehicle buyers
were aged 34 years or younger, down from almost 16% four years
earlier. Perhaps today’s young people indeed do have less interest
in cars or perhaps they don’t have the...
Common sense suggests that gaining a first time buyer provides
the opportunity to create a customer for life. Yet analyzing
repurchase behavior among the younger demographic set suggests
that manufacturers and dealers alike are not doing enough to retain
younger buyers when they return to market. Admittedly, younger
buyers represent a small percentage of total repurchase activity,
less than 1% for buyers 18-24 and 7.5% for buyers 25-34, but it’s
not necessarily about the value these customers...
Recently some friends and I were talking about the fact that
Mercedes-Benz and BMW are fierce competitors, and I mentioned that
Audi was making progress and should also be included in any
discussion about leading luxury makes. One of my friends
responded, “I’ve been hearing that for twenty years.” His
skepticism and sarcasm took me by surprise. I decided to look at
the registration data and see if Audi was in fact getting closer to
MB and BMW in this country, or not.
From 2006 through 2009, large vehicles as a percentage of total
new vehicle registrations declined 10 percentage points to 20%,
though this proportion has stayed constant in the last two years.
Going forward, most automotive forecasts predict that large
vehicles will retreat even further as gas prices rise and OEMs
launch smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles (including hybrids and
electric vehicles) to meet the upcoming CAFÉ standards.
Looking at the nine non-luxury mainstream makes, all of them...
The
FIAT 500 has come in for some criticism because dealers delivered
only 17,945* units in 2011, far short of the annual goal of 50,000
announced earlier in the year by Chrysler and FIAT Chairman Sergio
Marchionne. The 500’s shortfall was exceptionally visible because
it occurred amidst successful performances in 2011 by all other
Chrysler Corporation makes. And, if one looks at the 500 in the
context of the non-luxury subcompact car segment in which it
competes, its results – 4% of the segment...
Premium new vehicle registrations in the U.S. climbed almost 5% in
2011 to 1.45 million units, driven in part by fierce competition
between BMW and Mercedes-Benz for premium sales leadership (won by
BMW). But this increase lagged behind the 10% improvement for
the overall new vehicle industry, which was led by exceptional
gains at Chrysler, Volkswagen and Hyundai.
In the premium market, nine of 11 segments gained ground in 2011,
with two small-vehicle segments and one upper-end category...Read More »
Dependence on foreign oil, increasing fuel costs and concerns
for the environment have forced OEMs to develop solutions to
improve the efficiency of new vehicles and their response could be
seen at the North American International Auto Show which was held
in Detroit from January 9 - January 22, 2012.
For those consumers wishing to stick with gasoline engines,
Mazda's Skyactiv technology is something worth considering.
Skyactiv is the combination of an efficient high compression
gasoline engine, a...
The Luxury Compact Car Segment – with 27% of all luxury
registrations during the first 11 months of 2011 - is the largest
luxury segment. Therefore, it is no surprise that many of the
luxury marques focused on small cars in their presentations to the
media at the recent North American International Auto Show (NAIAS)
in Detroit.
BMW unveiled the redesigned 2012 3-Series which offers understated,
evolutionary styling changes; later in the year, a hybrid 3-Series
will be available. Cadillac...Read More »
The U.S. new vehicle industry continued to gain momentum as 2011
came to a close, with December deliveries up almost 9% from
December 2010. For the entire year, dealers delivered 12,777,939
new cars and light trucks, up about 10% from 2011. The Polk
Forecasting Practice expects the industry recovery to continue in
2012, with U.S. new vehicle deliveries climbing another 7% to 13.7
million units. Further growth in the industry
will unfortunately be inhibited by the continued weakness
in the U.S....Read More »
It seems like there are a million different types of cars and
trucks on the road these days. I'm not a mathematician, but if you
were to calculate all of the different combinations of vehicles
available based on such vehicle characteristics as size, body type,
price and powertrain, there are probably a million
possibilities. Yet, even with such a wide choice of vehicles from
which the consumer can choose, four types of vehicles dominate the
marketplace. Midsize cars, compact cars, compact...
Sport utility vehicles, one of the core drivers of the new
vehicle industry in the 1990s and seemingly ubiquitous on the
American road at that time, are on the verge of making the
"Endangered Species" list. There were 59 SUVs on the market as
recently as 2006, accounting for 13.9% of all new vehicle
registrations, but today there are just 35 sport utilities in
dealer showrooms, and their share has plummeted to just 7.7%. This
sales trend has occurred at the same time as the rise of
crossovers...
If you appreciate automotive marketing that blends mild humor
while showcasing product performance, you'll enjoy this
video from Hyundai.
The main point of their message? A rear-wheel drive Genesis can
"drift" like no other car! Another clip featuring the same driver,
Rhys Millen, shows him conquering
Pike's Peak with the Red Bull Hyundai Genesis RM580 in order to
demonstrate this similar feat on a treacherous stretch of mountain
road.
So is the Hyundai brand "drifting" in a slow and steady...
In the November 9, 2011 edition of The AutoExtremist, a
respected blog written by veteran auto marketer Peter M. De
Lorenzo, he discusses how Toyota lost its way (in the years leading
up to and including 2010) and the lessons other OEMs can learn from
Toyota's woes. By the end of the blog, De Lorenzo has
mentioned several strategies which OEMs need to pursue to avoid
Toyota's troubles. His major recommendations include:
Building vehicles that "bristle with leading-edge design and
exceptional,...
The BMW 3-Series continues to be the heart and soul of BMW. This
small BMW encapsulates in one vehicle the driving characteristics,
styling and image that define the BMW brand. The 3-Series
registration results illustrate its success. In the past 12
months (September 2010 – August 2011), BMW dealers have delivered
96,292 3-Series, 41% of all BMWs. This total is 66% more than the
Infinity G, the runner-up in the small car segment of the luxury
market.
New premium vehicle registrations tend to be skewed to the
Northeast, but after about three years of ownership, some of these
vehicles start to migrate to other areas of the U.S., including the
Midwest, South and West. As the value of these high-end vehicles
decline over time, they become affordable to households with lower
(relative) incomes. The Northeast’s share of new luxury
registrations is in the 27-28% range, but by the time these same
vehicles have been on the road for four years, only...Read More »
In his latest book, Car Guys vs. Bean Counters, Bob Lutz
criticizes the luxury brands' efforts to be number one in
sales:
"This had always seemed oxymoronic to me: how can any product or
service be simultaneously 'aspirational and exclusive' while also
'most popular in its class' and 'near-ubiquitous?'" Lutz then says,
"Best-selling Exclusive Brand" is a phrase akin to "World's Tallest
Midget."*
This is not the first time this strategy has been criticized. Yet,
the luxury-make management teams...Read More »
It's no secret that luxury brands like BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz
enjoy some of the highest rates of customer loyalty in the
automotive industry, but are luxury buyers loyal to the luxury
vehicle segment? It turns out that they are, with nearly 46% buying
within the same segment as recorded during the first five months of
2011. This isn't a recent phenomenon either as owners of luxury
vehicles have repurchased vehicles within this segment at a higher
rate than any other segment during four of...Read More »
To help automotive customers
gain insight into the impact diverse market customers (African
American, Asian, Hispanic) are having on the U.S. light vehicle
industry, this is the second installment in a series of blogs
focused on the Top 10 U.S. markets based on volume year-to-date
(YTD) through June 2011.
The focus of this blog is the New York market, also known as "The
Big Apple," "The City that Never Sleeps" or simply, "NY." The area
could also be referred to as "European Luxury Central" since...Read More »
Any discussion about flagship luxury sedans usually gets around to
mentioning the BMW 7-Series, Mercedes-Benz S-Class and/or Lexus LS,
long the dominant players in this space. Five years ago, these
three models by themselves accounted for 82% of all large luxury
sedan registrations, with the S-Class alone claiming almost
30%.
Recently, though, the field has become more crowded, and these
three leaders are now facing some serious competition. During the
12-month period from June 2010 through this...Read More »
Sales
of hybrid and electric vehicles remain modest. And, the creation of
the infrastructure to support the use of these vehicles is
proceeding in fits and starts. In January, hybrid registrations
accounted for just 2.29% of all new vehicle registrations in the
U.S., down from 2.51% a year ago.
The
FIAT 500 has come in for some criticism because dealers delivered
only 17,945* units in 2011, far short of the annual goal of 50,000
announced earlier in the year by Chrysler and FIAT Chairman Sergio
Marchionne. The 500’s shortfall was exceptionally visible because
it occurred amidst successful performances in 2011 by all other
Chrysler Corporation makes. And, if one looks at the 500 in the
context of the non-luxury subcompact car segment in which it
competes, its results – 4% of the segment...
To help automotive customers
gain insight into the impact diverse market customers (African
American, Asian, Hispanic) are having on the U.S. light vehicle
industry, this is the second installment in a series of blogs
focused on the Top 10 U.S. markets based on volume year-to-date
(YTD) through June 2011.
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