True to form, the US market followed a month of growth with a decline, as sales fell by 0.5% compared to November 2017. However, the fall was not nearly as bad as it could have been, and was in fact the most modest monthly decline recorded so far in 2018. A decline is a decline, though, and November’s decline brought the YTD growth to 0.4%, down from 0.6% in October and 1.4% in August. Still, as long as the market does not decline by more than 3.0% in December, it should finish 2018 in the black, setting yet another annual sales record.
Highlights:
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- Five out of the Top 10 brands registered positive sales growth this month, down from six in October
- The Top 5 did not have a great month, with only Chevrolet potentially seeing its sales rise (according to our estimates)
- While the decline was bad for Honda, which lost 11.6% in sales, it was much worse for Nissan, whose sales were 21.6% lower than last year, pushing the carmakers YTD sales further to 7.9%
- By comparison, FCA brands Jeep and Ram had a great November, the latter especially seeing its sales rise by 43.5% to a new monthly record of 57,970, matching its best-ever ranking of 7th, recorded just last month
Ram Pickup - Another brand that enjoyed a good November was Subaru, with sales up by almost 10%
- Hyundai and Kia both recorded small but useful sales increases, putting the former at the bring of pushing its YTD sales figures back into black after a bad start to the year
- Dodge once again registered double-digit growth, making it the only mainstream brand other than Kia outside of the Top 10 to do so
- Instead, Volkswagen, Mazda and Mitsubishi, brands that have otherwise had a good 2018, all saw their sales fall in November, as did all the other usual suspects
- Among luxury brands, Mercedes-Benz easily outsold BMW despite a small decline in sales, which in turn was ahead of Lexus and Audi, which after nine years of non-stop growth followed up October’s 17.3% decline with another double-digit sales dip, which put it perilously close to a YTD sales decline
Audi Q5
- Further back Infiniti just about outsold Acura, with both recording sales growth of close to 10%, with only Land Rover (up 25.7%) and Alfa Romeo (up 35.9%) doing better among luxury brands
- Jaguar managed to return to positive growth with a sales increase of 4.4% on November’17, though on YTD terms it remains the second-worst performing brand in 2017, its 25.3% decline putting it ahead of only Genesis, whose sales have halved compared to 2017
- Lincoln, Volvo and Porsche managed to eek out more moderate sales growth figures once again
- Among the exclusive brands Bentley once again saw its sales fall, this time by almost a third compared to November’17, while McLaren‘s sales growth came down a bit after the lofty heights earlier in the year
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Brand ranking
Monthly YTD # Model Nov’18 Nov’17 Δ # 2018 2017 Δ a1 Ford 186,048 201,296 
-7.6%a1 2,173,529 2,233,750 -2.7%a2 Chevrolet* 173,610 168,841 
2.8%a3 1,841,486 1,859,075 -0.9%a3 Toyota 163,977 164,499 -0.3%a2 1,942,973 1,941,662 0.1%a4 ( 1)Honda 106,481 120,440 -11.6%a4 1,307,553 1,352,572 -3.3%a5 ( 1)Nissan 96,427 122,959 -21.6%a5 1,213,942 1,318,202 -7.9%a6 Jeep 73,784 66,001 11.8%a6 892,778 755,317 18.2%a7 ( 4)Ram 57,970 40,390 43.5%b10 529,173 506,914 4.4%a8 ( 1)Hyundai 57,083 55,435 3.0%a8 ( 1)602,526 603,315 -0.1%a9 ( 1)Subaru 56,782 51,721 9.8%a7 ( 1)615,594 584,614 5.3%b10 ( 1)GMC* 45,302 46,499 -2.6%b11 484,840 496,541 -2.4%b11 ( 1)Kia 45,101 44,302 1.8%a9 542,245 546,629 -0.8%b12 ( 2)Dodge 33,196 28,845 15.1%b12 426,796 419,111 1.8%b13 ( 1)Mercedes-Benz 32,879 34,112 -3.6%b14 ( 1)318,005 332,990 -4.5%b14 ( 1)BMW 28,330 28,049 1.0%b15 276,657 271,432 1.9%b15 ( 2)VW 26,789 29,207 -8.3%b13 ( 1)322,017 309,395 4.1%b16 Lexus 26,446 27,118 -2.5%b17 ( 1)262,786 269,671 -2.6%b17 ( 12)Tesla* 21,700 4,200 416.7%b21 ( 8)150,700 43,800 244.1%b18 ( 1)Mazda 20,660 21,469 -3.8%b16 ( 1)274,455 262,577 4.5%b19 Audi 17,082 19,195 -11.0%b18 200,558 199,534 0.5%b20 ( 2)Buick* 16,448 19,641 -16.3%b19 187,685 196,946 -4.7%b21 ( 1)Infiniti 14,086 13,026 8.1%b24 ( 1)131,215 137,036 -4.2%b22 ( 1)Acura 14,053 12,716 10.5%b22 142,160 139,540 1.9%b23 ( 2)Cadillac* 13,360 14,524 -8.0%b23 ( 2)139,456 141,136 -1.2%b24 ( 4)Chrysler 13,094 16,510 -20.7%b20 153,539 171,337 -10.4%b25 ( 1)Lincoln 9,207 8,909 3.3%b26 ( 2)92,061 100,540 -8.4%b26 ( 1)Land Rover 8,547 6,801 25.7%b28 ( 1)81,526 66,759 22.1%b27 ( 1)Volvo 8,181 7,854 4.2%b27 ( 1)89,437 71,825 24.5%b28 ( 3)Mitsubishi 7,688 8,609 -10.7%b25 109,088 95,185 14.6%b29 ( 1)Porsche 5,673 5,555 2.1%b29 ( 1)53,116 51,507 3.1%b30 Mini 3,528 4,038 -12.6%b30 40,887 42,494 -3.8%b31 Jaguar 3,197 3,061 4.4%b31 27,021 36,180 -25.3%b32 ( 2)Alfa Romeo 1,957 1,440 35.9%b32 ( 3)21,854 9,997 118.6%b33 Fiat 1,309 1,733 -24.5%b33 ( 1)14,544 24,754 -41.2%b34 ( 1)Maserati 950 1,140 -16.7%b34 10,313 12,272 -16.0%b35 ( 3)Genesis 417 1,776 -76.5%b35 ( 2)9,698 18,646 -48.0%b36 Bentley 165 247 -33.2%b36 ( 1)1,807 2,107 -14.2%b37 ( 1)McLaren 142 116 22.4%b37 ( 3)1,337 879 52.1%b38 ( 1)Smart 100 130 -23.1%b38 ( 2)1,154 2,905 -60.3%b39 Lamborghini 94 92 2.2%b39 ( 1)1,034 1,003 3.1%b40 Rolls-Royce 90 86 4.7%b40 ( 1)990 943 5.0%Note: * Estimate