At -38% in 2020, the large sedan segment is the fastest declining in the US, together with the subcompact car class. Only just under 258,800 large sedans were sold in 2020, which brings the share of the US passenger car market down 0.6 percentage points to 1.8%. This is slowest year for this type of vehicle in this millennium and long before. All of the top-6 best selling nameplates lose more than 20% of their sales compared to the same period last year. Luxury cars continue to outperform mainstream models and have improved their share from 38% in 2019 to 45.1% now.
The Dodge Charger is down by 20% which makes it the best performer in the top-6. The Charger improves its share of the segment to 29.9% (and 54% of the mainstream part of the class). When combining its platform sibling Chrysler 300, FCA holds a 36.4% share (66% of mainstream), with models that are the oldest in the class. And both FCA models have to soldier on for at least 3 more years before any major updates or replacements. Especially Dodge is doing a great job at keeping interest in the Charger alive by launching limited editions and appealing to the muscle car crowd. The 300 is down 43% (-8% in Q4) and falls behind the Toyota Avalon in the ranking. The Avalon also leapfrogs the Nissan Maxima, as the latter loses nearly half of its sales this year. The Chevrolet Impala was taken out of production in February but still manages to outsell the Kia Cadenza in Q4.
In the luxury part of the segment, the BMW 5-Series takes the top spot from the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, thanks to a stellar fourth quarter, when the 5-Series was up 32.9% while the E-Class lost 36%. For the year, both models still lose over 30% of their sales while the #3 luxury player manages to improve an estimated 17% to stay ahead of hte Cadillac CT5, while the Audi A6 is relegated from 3rd place to 5th place among luxury players with sales down 41%. The Lincoln Continental beats the segment with sales down 20% and moves ahead of hte Genesis G80, which loses more than half of its sales. The Volvo 90-Series also outperforms the class and leaps ahead of the Audi A7. Big winner of the class is the Mercedes-Benz CLS. Production of the Cadillac XTS ended in October 2019, but more than a year afterwards, it still outsold the Jaguar XF in Q4 of 2020.
US large car sales 2020
| Large car segment | 2020 | 2019 | Change | Share | Share | |
| 1 | Dodge Charger | 77.425 | 96.935 | -20% | 29,9% | 23,2% |
| 2 | BMW 5-series | 26.785 | 38.709 | -31% | 10,4% | 9,3% |
| 3 | Mercedes-Benz E-class | 25.499 | 39.172 | -35% | 9,9% | 9,4% |
| 4 | Toyota Avalon | 18.421 | 27.767 | -34% | 7,1% | 6,7% |
| 5 | Nissan Maxima | 18.062 | 35.076 | -49% | 7,0% | 8,4% |
| 6 | Chrysler 300 | 16.653 | 29.213 | -43% | 6,4% | 7,0% |
| 7 | Tesla Model S | 16.450 | 14.100 | 17% | 6,4% | 3,4% |
| 8 | Cadillac CT5 | 14.711 | 43 | +++ | 5,7% | 0,0% |
| 9 | Audi A6 / S6 | 10.535 | 17.807 | -41% | 4,1% | 4,3% |
| 10 | Chevrolet Impala | 9.942 | 44.978 | -78% | 3,8% | 10,8% |
| 11 | Lincoln Continental | 5.262 | 6.586 | -20% | 2,0% | 1,6% |
| 12 | Genesis G80 | 3.359 | 7.094 | -53% | 1,3% | 1,7% |
| 13 | Volvo 90 series | 3.194 | 4.052 | -21% | 1,2% | 1,0% |
| 14 | Audi A7 / S7 | 2.859 | 4.955 | -42% | 1,1% | 1,2% |
| 15 | Lexus GS | 2.560 | 3.378 | -24% | 1,0% | 0,8% |
| 16 | Mercedes-Benz CLS | 1.603 | 941 | 70% | 0,6% | 0,2% |
| 17 | Kia Cadenza | 1.265 | 1.630 | -22% | 0,5% | 0,4% |
| 18 | Cadillac XTS | 1.199 | 11.304 | -89% | 0,5% | 2,7% |
| 19 | Acura RLX | 1.054 | 1.019 | 3% | 0,4% | 0,2% |
| 20 | Jaguar XF | 749 | 1.187 | -37% | 0,3% | 0,3% |
| 21 | Cadillac CTS | 611 | 6.965 | -91% | 0,2% | 1,7% |
| 22 | Buick LaCrosse | 230 | 7.241 | -97% | 0,1% | 1,7% |
| 23 | BMW 6-series | 200 | 1.139 | -82% | 0,1% | 0,3% |
| 24 | Infiniti Q70 | 139 | 2.552 | -95% | 0,1% | 0,6% |
| Segment total | 258.767 | 417.197 | -38% |
Source: Manufacturers.