US car sales analysis Q2 2018 – Minicar segment

Krzysztof Wozniak
US Minicar segment
2

Mitsubishi Mirage retakes segment lead as collapse in Chevy Smart sales drops it to third

US-sales-minicar-segment-2016-Chevrolet_Spark-Mitsubishi_Mirage

Sales in the US Minicar segment fell by 15.1% to 37,708 in the first half of 2018, a result driven by a 26.0% decline in the first quarter of the year, which masks a modest 0.5% sales decline in the second quarter. This provides a rare respite for a segment that has been in decline for quite some time now, but it is too early to call this a recovery.  While the Mini Cooper and Chevrolet Spark there are no new cars on the horizon, which suggests that the segment will continue to fall behind as customers choose larger cars amid good economic growth and gas prices that are not high.

Highlights:

  • Just like last year, Chevrolet Spark followed up a good first quarter with a dismal second quarter, selling fewer than half the cars of the Mitsubishi Mirage, and dropping it two placed down in the YTD rankings
  • The Mirage itself had a good second quarter of the year, with sales rising by 23.1%, allowing it to rise to the top of the segment ahead of Mini Cooper (which lost a modest 1.0% of sales in the second quarter)
  • Misery continued once more for Fiat 500 and the Smart ForTwo, with both models losing more than 60% of their sales in the second quarter

Note: clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model; clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off

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Krzysztof Wozniak
Kriss grew up in Poland reading German car magazines, before moving to England and graduating to the British magazines, which he still considers the best in the world and continues reading them after he'd moved to the US. In college he promised himself he's buy himself a used Porsche before he turned 30 (not to be accused of having a mid-life crisis), but instead family needs dictated a Subaru Outback. Still waiting for that perfect moment to buy a used 2008-ish Cayman... You can find all his articles Here.
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2 Comments

  1. The situation at Fiat is tragic. They are just filling the dealers spots now with the 2018 500, while just three months ago they were empty! I don’t understand why they don’t care about the 500 which was selling very well in the past years, it also crossed the 4000 sales back in 2011…

    Reply

  2. Fiat, what a mess… They are down to only 4 viable models: the 500, the 500X, Tipo and Panda. Of those, the 500 and Panda desperately need a new wheelbase that can assure more confort, security, technology and better use of the interior space, and the Tipo will be discontinued anyway, just like the Punto and 500L.
    Same goes for Chrysler, with only the Pacífica, and Dodge, with the Charger, Challenger and possibly a new Durango, keeping those brands alive.
    The money spent on Jeep and RAM seems to be producing good results, and I’m hoping the money being spent on Alfa Romeo and Maserati will do too, but will they eventually bring enough money to FCA so they can elanrge the rest of their brands line-up?
    Or is it Marchionne plan to concentrate only on the brands that can be eventually sold off to other companies once FCA starts failing?

    Reply

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