Sales in the Mid-sized segment fell by 11 percent in the second quarter, the largest fall amongst the mainstream segments. This comes as a disappointment after the segment showed signs of recovery in the first quarter of 2016, when it did better than the Minicar, Subcompact and Compact segments. It is doubly disappointing given the amount of new metal in the segment: cars that have gone on sale in the past half year include the new-for-2016 Chevy Malibu and Kia Optima, as well as the facelifted Nissan Altima, while the Hyundai Sonata and facelifted VW Passat are also less than one year old.
Highlights for first half of 2016:
- Honda Accord outsold Nissan Altima in the second quarter, though it is still some 3,000 units behind for the total units sold in 2016
- The new Chevy Malibu is finally gathering sales steam, with sales up 25 percent over the course of the first half year, raising the model up to 5th spot at the expense of Hyundai Sonata, which had a bad second quarter with sales down 16 percent
- Kia Optima did even worse than its cousin, with sales down almost 30 percent in the second quarter, suggesting that consumer are simply not taking to the latest generation of the model
- Chrysler 200 continues its ignominious exit from the segment, with sales again down almost by two-thirds compared to Q2 2015, making the 14 percent fall in sales for the VW Passat look like a good performance for the under-pressure brand
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