Sales in the Sports Large and Exotics segment fell by 10.4 percent in 2016 to 54,994, about a third lower than they were a decade ago. The segment’s prospects for 2017 are rather bleak: not only right now it seems that there will be no big new debuts in this segment in the coming year, the early indication is that customers are not very keen on the new, turbocharged iteration of one of the mainstays of the segment: Porsche 911.
Note: going forward, the segments Sports Large and Exotics have been merged, partly to align the US reporting with that for Europe, and partly because data for the old Exotic segment became very thin ever since sales estimates for the truly exotic brands (Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini) became unavailable.
Highlights for 2016:
- After starting off 2016 by losing 25 percent of sales in the first quarter, the sales performance of the Chevy Corvette gradually improved throughout the year, eventually reducing the year-on-year decline to 10 percent
- The second-placed Porsche 911 also saw its sales fall by 10 percent, but the average masks the fact that consumers snapped up the outgoing naturally-aspirated model early in the year (sales were up 12 percent in Q2), while they were clearly less interested in the new turbocharged model (sales were down by 20 percent in the second half of the year); between this and the underwhelming second-half performance of the turbocharged Cayman/Boxster duo, Porsche may soon start wondering whether it took the right decision when it decided to turbocharge the base versions of its sports cars
- Maserati GranTurismo enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in 2016 (its tenth year on the market!), allowing it to jump two places, ahead of the BMW i8 (a model that also belongs to the Alternative Power meta-segment) and the Bentley Continental GT, which lost a third of its sales since 2015, partly one might expect due to the arrival of internal competition from the similarly-expensive Bentayga crossover
- The only model other than the Maserati to see its sales rise compared to 2015 was the new Audi R8 (sales up 49 percent), and while it remained some way off its most-direct competitor, Mercedes-AMG GT, it managed to outsell the only other mid-engine car in the segment, the new Acura NSX, in each of the quarters
Note: “AP” designates models that are also classified in the Alternative Power meta-segment; 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