It appears that hell may have finally frozen over for car guys.
For the first time since we can remember at TFLcar, the three top selling cars for the month of August are all compact crossovers.
Leading the pack, both in the segment and overall, is the Honda CR-V, which just had its second record-breaking sales month in a row. In all, 36,517 CR-Vs found homes in August, beating the second-place Toyota RAV4 by more than 3,000 sales. It also beat the highest-selling non-crossover, the Toyota Camry, by about 3,700 sales.
The record-breaking months have brought the CR-V’s yearly sales back in the black with a 0.9 percent increase, which also leapfrogs it ahead of the RAV4 for tops in yearly sales for the segment.
The RAV4 also had a strong month, not only coming in second to the CR-V but also being the best-selling Toyota for August. Sales for the month are up 8.6 percent over 2015, and for the year, sales are up 15 percent.
The Nissan Rogue came in third with a 19.2 percent monthly increase. For the year, sales are up 14.4 percent.
With the exception of the GM twins (the Chevrolet Equinox and the GMC Terrain), the Ford Escape and the Mitsubishi Outlander, all vehicles saw sales bumps from last year. The best was the Jeep Cherokee, which followed a down month to post the highest increase at 41 percent, which also brought yearly totals up to a two percent increase.
Two aging Fiat-Chrysler twins, the Jeep Compass and the Dodge Journey, both had strong months, as did the Korean twins, the Hyundai Tucson and the Kia Sportage.
Total sales for all compact crossovers tracked by TFLcar rose more than five percent over July of this year.
Compact Crossover Sales – August 2016
| Aug 2016 # | July 2016 # | Aug ’16/July ’16 % | Aug 2016/2015 | YTD 2016 # | YTD 2016/2015 % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honda CR-V | 36,517 | 36,017 | 1.4% | 5.0% | 231,609 | 0.9% |
| Toyota RAV4 | 33,171 | 31,871 | 4.1% | 8.6% | 230,942 | 15.0% |
| Nissan Rogue | 32,979 | 33,298 | -1.0% | 19.2% | 215,160 | 14.4% |
| Ford Escape | 28,061 | 26,260 | 6.9% | -2.8% | 209,699 | 2.5% |
| Jeep Cherokee | 23,932 | 15,451 | 54.9% | 41.0% | 142,498 | 2.0% |
| Subaru Forester | 19,658 | 14,856 | 32.3% | 11.9% | 114,769 | 0.5% |
| Chevrolet Equinox | 15,273 | 21,882 | -30.2% | -39.4% | 158,475 | -17.7% |
| Jeep Patriot | 11,798 | 11,288 | 4.5% | 10.0% | 86,632 | 8.0% |
| Dodge Journey | 11,732 | 6,376 | 84.0% | 40.0% | 66,415 | -6.0% |
| Mazda CX-5 | 10,612 | 10,831 | -2.0% | 5.8% | 73,054 | 0.2% |
| Jeep Compass | 8,867 | 7,005 | 26.6% | 29.0% | 69,462 | 72.0% |
| Hyundai Tucson | 7,608 | 7,728 | -1.6% | 15.1% | 58,000 | 75.0% |
| Kia Sportage | 6,888 | 8,111 | -15.1% | 19.8% | 57,228 | 63.5% |
| GMC Terrain | 6,004 | 9,375 | -36.0% | -35.0% | 62,256 | -14.1% |
| VW Tiguan | 3,302 | 3,379 | -2.3% | 4.3% | 27,237 | 41.5% |
| Mitsubishi Outlander | 2,109 | 1,952 | 8.0% | -3.6% | 17,537 | 53.7% |
Check out this related TFLcar video of the 2017 Kia Sportage:
