2016 continues being a bad year for he Minicar segment, with a further drop in sales in the second quarter of 10 percent relative to Q2 2015, bringing the total fall for the year to 18 percent; only the Premium Mid-sized segment shrank more in 2016 so far. What’s more, this was despite the new Chevy Spark and facelifted Mitsubishi Mirage hitting the market this quarter. It seems that this segment is destined to shrink until gas prices rise meaningfully, as American customers buy cars from this sector only because of the value proposition they represent, rather than because they inherently value the advantage of their small size.
Highlights for first half of 2016:
- The new Chevy Spark came within 600 units of taking the segment lead from Mini Cooper, on the back of of 27 percent sales growth in the Q2, compared to a 14 percent fall in sales for the Cooper
- After placing second in the segment in the first quarter of the year, Mitsubishi Mirage fell to third spot for the year so far, experiencing a 7 percent fall in sales in Q2
- Misery continued for the Fiat 500 and Smart ForTwo, with both of them dropping around 40 percent in sales compared to Q2 2015
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