The Toyota Corolla held onto the compact car sales lead for the year despite a strong comeback from the Honda Civic. Meanwhile, in the subcompact car sales race, the dominant Nissan Versa came into some unexpected competition.
The Corolla had a strong month, but couldn’t take the December sales crown because of the surging Civic, fresh off of a redesign and a class-leading 29 percent sales increase over December 2014. The Civic’s recent resurgence narrowed the yearly gap to the Corolla considerably, but fell short of first place by a mere 4,000 sales.
The Nissan Sentra also had a strong month – right behind the Civic with a 28 percent increase over December 2014 – but couldn’t catch the Hyundai Elantra and Chevy Cruze for the year. The Elantra’s third-place finish is surprising, as is its place as the best-selling car from the Korean brand.
The Cruze’s strong sales bode well for 2016 as the new model has only been in showrooms for a brief time in 2015. For most of the year, the Cruze’s sales were based on the aging previous-generation model. The new Cruze is stylish and sophisticated and is the strongest competitor in the compact car class from the bowtie brand in a long time, which could help erase the 17 percent sales drop in 2015.
Elsewhere on the list, the VW Jetta took a hit from the company’s diesel emissions woes and the stop-sale on all diesel models, but its sister car, the Golf, had a resurgence in sales for the year, nearly doubling 2014’s output. At the bottom, the new Scion iM is off to a slow start, being beaten out by the ancient Mitsubishi Lancer and its much smaller dealer network.
Compact Car Sales – December 2015
| Dec 2015 # | Nov 2015 # | Dec ’15/Nov ’15 % | Dec ’15/’14 % | YTD 2015 # | YTD ’15/’14 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honda Civic | 32,796 | 25,050 | 30.9% | 29.4% | 335,384 | 2.9% |
| Toyota Corolla | 32,445 | 24,194 | 34.1% | 7.7% | 339,498 | 7.0% |
| Nissan Sentra | 19,760 | 14,505 | 36.2% | 28.4% | 203,509 | 11.0% |
| Chevrolet Cruze | 16,849 | 16,073 | 4.8% | -5.3% | 226,602 | -17.0% |
| Hyundai Elantra | 14,242 | 17,634 | -19.2% | -24.5% | 241,706 | 8.9% |
| VW Jetta | 14,073 | 11,021 | 27.7% | -9.7% | 131,109 | -18.5% |
| Ford Focus | 11,005 | 11,186 | -1.6% | -26.1% | 202,478 | -7.8% |
| Mazda 3 | 9,838 | 7,405 | 32.9% | 1.2% | 107,885 | 2.8% |
| Dodge Dart | 6,731 | 6,190 | 8.7% | -2.0% | 87,392 | 4.0% |
| Subaru Impreza | 6,059 | 4,924 | 23.1% | 4.3% | 66,785 | 15.2% |
| VW Golf | 5,715 | 4,110 | 29.7% | 2.9% | 65,308 | 93.9% |
| Kia Forte | 5,411 | 5,010 | 8.0% | 2.0% | 78,919 | 13.8% |
| Buick Verano | 2,545 | 1,646 | 54.6% | -15.6% | 31,886 | -27.1% |
| Mitsubishi Lancer | 1,324 | 1,011 | 31.0% | -14.4% | 17,691 | 7.3% |
| Scion iM | 1,245 | 1,091 | 14.1% | NEW | 5,097 | NEW |
On the subcompact car front, only two companies seem to have cars that resonate with consumers. The Nissan Versa and Kia Soul sold substantially more than the other competitors on the list.
The Soul has never been included in past TFLcar sales round-ups because it’s one of those vehicles that’s hard to categorize. It competes against subcompacts like the Honda Fit, but it also competes with front-drive versions subcompact crossovers like the Honda HR-V and Nissan Juke. However, since the Soul has no all-wheel-drive option and isn’t trying to be an SUV, it belongs on this list. It’s sales are too good to ignore.
The same can be said for the Fiat 500L. It’s larger than some of the competitors on this list, but it is a subcompact hatchback without SUV pretensions. Its sales, however, are nowhere near those of the Soul.
Scion’s new Mazda 2 clone, the iA, continues to put up strong sales and is the brand’s monthly best-seller. However, only five competitors – the Soul, the Versa, the Ford Fiesta, the Mitsubishi Mirage and the Toyota Yaris – had yearly sales increases over 2014. It was a bad year for subcompact cars, most likely due to plunging gas prices and the emergence of the crossover.
Subcompact Car Sales – December 2015
| Dec 2015 # | Nov 2015 # | Dec ’15/Nov ’15 % | Dec ’15/’14 % | YTD 2015 # | YTD ’15/’14 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kia Soul | 12,159 | 10,045 | 21.0% | 22.7% | 147,133 | 1.3% |
| Nissan Versa | 11,058 | 9,783 | 13.0% | 21.1% | 144,528 | 3.4% |
| Chevrolet Sonic | 7,293 | 3,653 | 99.6% | 33.7% | 64,775 | -30.7% |
| Honda Fit | 4,197 | 3,018 | 39.1% | -34.9% | 59,340 | -11.1% |
| Ford Fiesta | 3,550 | 3,422 | 3.7% | -4.7% | 64,458 | 2.0% |
| Hyundai Accent | 2,718 | 5,041 | -46.1% | -68.3% | 61,486 | -2.9% |
| Scion iA | 1,808 | 1,785 | 1.3% | NEW | 7,605 | NEW |
| Fiat 500 | 1,501 | 968 | 55.1% | -35.0% | 25,084 | -26.0% |
| Chevrolet Spark | 1,340 | 1,628 | -17.7% | -55.4% | 32,809 | -16.2% |
| Mitsubishi Mirage | 1,262 | 1,085 | 16.3% | 11.2% | 21,515 | 28.8% |
| MINI Cooper 4-door | 1,247 | 1,325 | -5.9% | 12.0% | 15,189 | NEW |
| Kia Rio | 997 | 898 | 11.0% | -48.2% | 23,742 | -33.9% |
| MINI Cooper 2-door | 956 | 1,460 | -34.5% | -68.8% | 19,778 | -8.0% |
| Toyota Yaris | 377 | 348 | 8.3% | -76.5% | 16,779 | 26.4% |
| Fiat 500L | 308 | 228 | 35.1% | -79.0% | 7,863 | -37.0% |
Check out this TFLcar vlog review of the 2016 Toyota Corolla:
