Civic and Corolla Quickly Turning Compact Car Sales into Two-Horse Race [Sales Report]

2016 Honda Civic Sedan Touring

The much-improved Honda Civic returned to form in March, taking the compact car sales lead back from the Toyota Corolla and increasing its yearly lead.

Civic sales were up nearly 22 percent from March 2015 and is the biggest yearly gainer in the segment with a near-31 percent increase. It was also the best-selling Honda in March, something it has done before since the redesign and is a pretty big deal, as the Accord and CR-V have been typically the company’s best sellers.

The Corolla‘s sales were down in March, dropping 8.4 percent month-over-month. Sales are also down for the year, but none of the other vehicles are even close to the top two in overall sales.

2017_Toyota_Corolla_50th_Anniversary_Special_Edition_1

March sales numbers in the segment took an interesting trend. For the majority of the cars on the list, sales were either up by a lot, like the Civic, Nissan Sentra and Kia Forte, or down by a lot, like the Hyundai Elantra, Chevrolet Cruze and the Dodge Dart. Only a few have relatively stable sales numbers.

The Elantra’s sales may be down as the car transitioned to the 2017 model, so expect sales to return to normal as supply increases throughout the year. The Elantra was the brand’s top seller in 2015.

It’s been a tough month for Mazda, as they have seen most of their models’ sales drop. The excellent Mazda 3, one of the best cars in the segment, was down more than 30 percent for the month and is down 19 percent for the year. Mitsubishi’s aging Lancer had its sales drop for the month as well, but it still managed to sell better than the Scion iM, which will be called the Toyota Corolla iM in 2017.

Compact Car Sales – March 2016

Mar 2016 # Feb 2016 # Mar ’16/Feb ’16 % Mar 2016/2015 YTD 2016 # YTD 2016/2015 %
Honda Civic 32,855 27,707 18.6% 21.8% 87,303 30.8%
Toyota Corolla 32,556 29,342 11.0% -8.4% 84,260 -7.1%
Nissan Sentra 26,201 20,599 27.2% 23.1% 62,944 23.4%
Ford Focus 18,618 18,620 0.0% -9.2% 50,215 -5.2%
Hyundai Elantra 17,505 11,973 46.2% -39.2% 39,363 -30.6%
VW Jetta 10,471 9,375 11.7% -9.6% 28,023 -10.6%
Kia Forte 10,406 8,187 27.1% 38.0% 23,922 22.6%
Chevrolet Cruze 9,881 12,998 -24.0% -58.1% 37,241 -38.5%
Mazda 3 7,307 7,275 0.4% -30.6% 22,133 -18.9%
Dodge Dart 5,349 6,771 -21.0% -44.0% 16,868 -33.0%
Subaru Impreza 5,193 4,432 17.2% -3.2% 14,007 -8.4%
VW Golf 4,495 3,645 23.3% -3.2% 12,133 -4.9%
Subaru WRX 2,737 1,997 37.1% 10.8% 7,453 2.6%
Buick Verano 2,300 3,066 -25.0% -19.7% 8,225 -9.4%
Mitsubishi Lancer 1,934 1,997 -3.2% -20.2% 5,454 -9.7%
Scion iM 1,659 1,317 26.0% NEW 4,226 NEW

 

Check out this TFLcar MPG review video of the sales-leading 2016 Honda Civic: