Movers and Losers: June's Top Sedans, Hatchbacks and Wagons

The family sedan and wagon aren’t the hot sellers they once were, but there are quite a few new models that are selling quickly, like the Chevy Malibu and Mazda5. The Kia Optima is a surprise on the list, but it also had significant incentives in June as dealers prepared for the upcoming 2009 model, which goes on sale later this year. Check out the losers and luxury winners and losers below.

Top 10 Sedan, Hatchback and Wagon Movers

• 2008 Toyota Prius: 4 days
• 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid: 10 days
• 2009 VW Jetta SportWagen: 13 days
• 2008 Kia Optima: 23 days
• 2008 Chevy Malibu: 24 days
• 2008 Chevy Impala: 25 days
• 2008 Honda Accord: 25 days
• 2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid: 25 days
• 2008 Mazda5: 28 days
• 2008 Pontiac G8: 30 days

Comments

Nice to see the Malibu selling so well and without incentives. Cadillac CTS is staying hot too! Looks like GM has started something, now if that Cruze could be here in '09.

Impala isn't very far either. Suprising since its been in the market for so long.

# of days on the lot is not synonymous with high sales. Gm sold 13K malibus and 16k impalas in June while honda sold 40k accords. BTW the maiibu and impala #'s are down from May by 25%.

It seems ziggy lives to get on here and bash on GM every chance he gets

NO I bash on ford and chrysler as well. It's just they don't get as much press.

BTW, Civic sales are down 25% from May as well.

You're always bashing Honda!

The impala has a $1,000 rebate and the malibu has 5.9% financing.

Just trying to present the readers of this blog a fair assessment of the market from all angles. And I apologize for singling out Honda. To be fair, Corolla sales were down 20% from May.

Ziggy,
How many times must you misread a post? I said HOT seller not HUGE seller. With one exception ( a new model) they all sold very well too!

Keith,
June sales are traditionally lower than May for a number of reasons across the board. That's why automakers report YEAR TO YEAR sales for the month. And don't forget the 1 day fewer calendar days.

Dave,
I really only cited those statistics in response to the numbers posted about the Malibu and Impala to make a point - people only see what they want to see.

Dave
My comment was not in response to your post but to Marks comment about it selling well and that # of days is not synonymous with sales numbers.

this is really a poor way to show weather a car is hot or not! dave u guys should just post the raw numbers!!! no offense to u Kia Optima fans but i see lots of brand new civics out there and i dont think i have seen any of the kias. On the luxury side the rich are still rich!

Alex-
That point has been raised before with regards to # days on the lot. Apparently this is some industry number that means a lot. Not something the general car buying public is even going to know about. People read these numbers and equate them with sales numbers.

It does mean something to car buyers. Expect the MOVERS to be harder to find in a number of colors and trims and at good prices (in general) and the losers at the opposite end.

The entire point is that all the anecdotal stories of cars "flying off lots" have real numbers behind them. It's also a statistic that no other consumer site is publishing right now in such a way.

Car companies vary in terms of how many cars they are even capable of producing. Just because the Optima did not sell as many units as Accord last month didn't mean they didn't have a successful month. I think their sales were actually up over all but that's not the point.

I have to agree - these numbers are posted in a way that reflects not much in terms of a cars hotness. The Kia Optima may have incentives, but there might be tons of 09s on the lot, or Mercedes may not be sending tons of C-classes over because of the crappy Dollar AND because demand isn't there. It's not so much a manufacturer having a hot product but a manufacturer tending to supply and demand better than average. This has larger implications for factory workers than buyers.

I wonder if other sites aren't as fixated on these statistics for a reason.

Perhaps you guys SHOULD post a chart showing these statistics, sales this year and last year for the same month for all models. That might put an end to the "confusion" AND provide us all with more information!

Anyone can find overall sales and we've followed the best selling cars in the country for the past two months since it became news with the civic and corolla topping the F-150.

LM you have to understand your guesses are simply wrong. The 2009 Optima is not out yet. Won't be for awhile. The new C Class is continuing to have record sales.

The fact that we chart the numbers month to month will show changes as well. So that should negate a lot of the demand issues you're complaining about as well.

Truth be told these are some of the most popular posts we have. People want to check them out. Because you don't believe they're an accurate gauge doesn't mean they aren't accurate at portraying exactly what we say they do.

Because a car company might be good at controlling inventory doesn't mean they shouldn't be on the list. It shows they know how to sell cars efficiently.

The fact is on almost every model we list, the sales numbers DO back up the mover and loser titles. I don't see a need of adding the sales as well since they're a very common number anyone can find. Our list is found only here.

Don't try and ask for a logical representation of the numbers. It's been done before and there is a complete refusal to do it.

The standard response is "I don't see a need of adding the sales as well since they're a very common number anyone can find. Our list is found only here."

How about being proactive and combining the lists as a service to your fans!?!?!

It's a real cop out to say do it your self.

Don't claim to provide value to the users of the website and then slap them down when they suggest an even better way to view the data that will be more meaningful.

Thanks for the backup BahHumBug...I do think just putting it all in one chart would be much more informative... why should we have to go and search for individual model sales to try and understand the data when you guys have it sitting in front of you? Some of us may not have that kind of time, but are interested nonetheless.

As far as the optima - regardless if the 09 is out, they are trying to move inventory and their incentives are working. The C is still a relatively new model, which can explain higher sales as people upgrade. On the BMW xi sales, maybe it's people who are trying to avoid SUVs? These are interesting tidbits, but it's hard to really judge what's going on and the additional data will only help.

You claim that these posts are popular but if you read the comments most of them deal with the confusion of whether these numbers reflect sales figures (which they don't - see my example between the accord and the malibu)or people just trying to understand them and you providing clarrification.

Is there a site that has comprehensive sales figures for every automobile or do you have to go to individual sites for each manufacturer? It would be nice to have the sales figures listed with the # of days. This way people would not assume high sales numbers because a vehicle has a low number of lot days.

Ziggy.
We have 4 guys saying they don't like it and thousands reading it. Positive folks don't comment as often.

Honestly every complaint you guys have doesn't hold water. You're saying you want the REASONS why they're moving fast. That would take weeks to hunt down the information.

I can attempt next month to add sales increase of decrease from year to year as a %. Total sales numbers like 13,456 units won't mean much to anyone.

I'm slapping down folks because they refuse to believe that these numbers have meaning. They then say "well honda manages their inventory really tightly so that's why they do well here" so? That means Honda is doing what it's supposed to do. Or BMW. Why on earth would I break down these issues. The point to consumers is when they go in to buy an Accord they can expect not to get the same deal as they would on a Mazda6. That's the entire point of the posts and if you look at it that way they really do hold up. The optima is one of the few I've noticed where an incentive moves it off the lots that quickly and that's why I mentioned it.

Seriously people - this is a consumer website so take the information for what it is and quit trying to over-analyze it. The numbers Dave presents to us is just a general resource for consumers.

Dave - We understand the numbers and what they mean. As I've pointed out before - most of those that comment are car enthusiasts and not necessarily in the market for a car. I don't think the average car buyer knows or cares for that matter. (if they do any research at all) they figure out what they want and visit the dealer. If they don't find what they want at the price they want then they either settle or they move on to another dealer. I don't think reading this post is going to change that.

I am not asking you guys for reasons, but you often post these with headlines or statements that the cars are "hot", when really that may not be the case.

Regardless of reasons, and we could go round and round about it, I think having a one stop shop for the numbers (year-to-year) on the top 10 and bottom 10 would be great.

:)

ziggy, you're right..and even on "hot" cars you can still wheel and deal. or least try to. that's part of the fun!

I've worked in customer service for two decades and you should know that if you have thousands of customers and 4 are complaining that they represent many more than themselves.

Most people just assume that if they complain nothing will happen so they put up with cr@p.

And sadly you are proving that assumption true because many people have requested complete information to make high priced decisions, and you jump down their throats and say they should be happy with they've got, even though the numbers don't tell the whole story.

You may have thousands of reader but those who care are the ones who post.

It would be nice to know how many people actually do the research before they buy. I would make the assumption that most people don't. They buy from previous brand experience or the see a car on the street and want it. If they do research they are more likely to buy based on a review of the vehicle and not a blog. I read the reviews but still buy based on brand experience. This is why honda and toyotas sales have increased over the last decade.

Valero,
First off this is a blog and I'm the editor and I'm conversing with my readers, I'm not in customer service. Disagreeing is part of the experience! I'm not sure how many other editors out there do the same in such a manner.

I also try not to say something is "hot" unless I also know there are sales numbers to back it up and I changed the one reference when I was wrong to one of the SUVs in a previous point.

There are a number of tools on Cars.com that help consumers know what types of deals are out there from incentives to the smart target price, 5-year cost of ownership etc. In our current set-up on the blog we can't provide easy access to them. You'll have to go to Cars.com central!

If anyone would like links or help finding those features just let me know.

Ziggy,

I think lots of people do research on cars before they decide to buy. The internet has done wonders for people looking into pricing info etc. Brand loyalty or looks on the street only steers them into a research direction, but does not take the place of research.

I'm just going from people that I know that have bought a new car over the last 5 years. I don't know of one (we're talking about 20 people) that actually did any research. Most just traded in and bought the same brand because they liked what they had before. I just wonder if any research has been done on this. Why do people buy the cars they buy and what preparation do they do ahead of time? This would be a good article for this site to post and maybe we'd get some good feedback from buyers and sales people.

I agree with Dave on this one. I mean, sure he can provide you with all the data you want, but if someone is looking to purchase a new vehicle, he/she might want to know if the vehicle they had in mind is moving quickly or not for bargaining, selection, etc. purposes. By providing numbers that compare sales to prior years for this consumer is utterly worthless; it’s the most recent month to month sales that’ll benefit them the most. If you guys truly want to number crunch, there are automotive analysts down on Wall Street that’ll provide you with all the numbers you want. And if a manufacturer can strategically limit the number of days it takes to sell a car, then they’re doing a good job of supply versus demand.

I think a lot of people do research but i would assume that a majority don't. And it would be interesting to see what research do they do and how much it influences their decision. Does it change their minds or does it just influence what they were going to buy anyway? Would be interesting to know.

Ken, It's not number crunching...it's just providing a complete picture and DT getting defensive about not doing so that got people riled up.

Knowing that the average Optima stays on the lot for 23 days is pretty meaningless overall. For a dealer, one day is too many. It does not really say much about the ability to haggle - I am sure I can walk into any Kia dealer today and walk out with an Optima for a few hundred under invoice minus the incentive, and in the same frame of mind I'm sure there are plenty of people who will go and pay full MSRP for a Taurus because a dealer has a particular one the customer wants or is making up that profit in other ways (through the trade, whatever).

I've been on the sales side and most people don't get how these transactions work or many don't think in terms of inventory. It's us car nuts that care more about this and it's I think we'd have more fun on here having a simple chart showing sales patterns along with days on the lots.

moi, defensive?