US car sales analysis 2018 Q1 – Sports Large and Exotics segment

Krzysztof Wozniak
US Exotic car segment

Chevy Corvette once again drags segment into the red, as sales of the Porsche 911 rise, while those of the McLaren 720S soarUS large sportsSales in the US Large Sports and Exotics segment fell by 8.8% to 10,275 in the first quarter of 2018, continuing on from the 7.0% sales decline in 2017. Once you exclude Chevrolet Corvette, which accounts for more than half the sales in the segment, the outlook is less bleak – sales of the remaining models rose by 6.4%. With outside of the Bentley Continental GT, whose sales the manufacturer no longer breaks out from among its aggregate sales, the segment is not expecting any new or updated models this year.

Highlights:

  • While Chevrolet Corvette remains the undisputed champion of this segment, its sales fell yet again in Q1’18, this time by 23%
  • Coincidentally, sales of the second-placed Porsche 911 rose pretty much as quickly as those of the Corvette fell, meaning the german car sold more than half the number of units of the American for the first time in a while, putting to rest fears that the move to an all-turbo layout had a permanent dent o the model’s sales
  • Sales of the Jaguar F-Type fell by over a third, bringing it within striking range of the aging Mercedes-Benz SL and the well-received new Lexus LC
  • The facelift and model reshuffle have clearly helped the Mercedes-AMG GT, with sales up by almost 40%, putting clear air between it and the aging Maserati GranTurismo

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

  • The new McLaren 720S (Super Series) has been a huge hit with buyers, with sales soaring by almost 250%, and the model leaping over many competitors, including its smaller Sport Series brother
  • Other than the ultra-rare Ford GT, the rest of the models all experienced sales declines in excess of 25%, with particularly painful declines registered by the new Acura NSX and the almost-new Audi R8
  • The final units of the irreplacable Dodge Viper were sold in Q1’18 – R.I.P. beast

Note: clicking on the model names in legend turns the display for that model on/off; data is displayed from 1990 onwards, but starts earlier – access previous years using slider on bottom