Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: September 2009

The Cash for Clunkers program ended before September began, so every sales number for the month should be free of any government-spurred buying frenzy. Overall, sales for many automakers were actually up, but GM and Chrysler took huge hits of 45% and 42%, respectively. Among GM’s numbers were huge losses from dead or to-be-sold brands like Saturn (down 83.7%), Hummer (down 81.5%), Saab (down 72.6%) and Pontiac (down 52.5%).

There’s some silver lining in the overall picture. Even with slower sales, other automakers weren’t hurt as badly by sales in September as they were earlier in the year. Ford and Nissan only dipped 6% and 7%, respectively, compared to September of last year. It was also in September 2008 that the U.S. economy spun into a freefall. That means October 2009 might look rosy compared to October 2008.

Brands seeing positive growth last month were Kia and Hyundai, Volvo, BMW and Subaru.

On to our best-sellers. The list is nearly the same as last month with lower overall sales and mostly the same players. The Toyota Prius would have been No. 11 with 10,984 units but just missed the cut. It barely outsold both the Ford Fusion (10,834 units) and Chevy Malibu (10,479).

Comments

Just makes you realize the impact of C4C. Let the rebates and incentives begin!

Gm and Chrysler are really looking bleak considering their huge drops from Sept 09 - when their sales were awful.

The GM declines for the dead brands doesn't amount to much since the total sales of these were very small in Sept. 08. Things like a 61% drop in Silverado and Sierra pickups is more telling.

Looking at the top 10 sales champs for September it is no wonder we continue to see rising unemployment and decreasing wages. 6 out of 10 models are owned by the Japanese. I do not want to hear UAW this….. Quality of my 1979 Ford was horrible….. blah, blah blah. Yeah, I know the same tired excuse. We lost our textile industry, our electronics industry, our steel industry, our mineral industry, our beer industry and finally will be losing our auto industry within the next 4 to 6 years. Do not tell me that sagging quality is the reason people purchase these vehicles. GM and namely Ford have quality on par or better than Toyota and Honda. Nissan’s quality at or slightly below the industry average. We continue to sell ourselves out and in the end we have no one to blame but ourselves. I can not wait until China begins selling vehicles over here. The Japanese, Koreans and what is left of our automakers will be put out of business. National unemployment will be between 20-30%, but the lucky few will be able to purchase a Chinese built vehicle containing all the technology and performance of a Cadillac or Lexus for the price of a Kia. I can not wait.

time to get a great bargain on a G8 GT...

Yeesh, is there any time the Camry, Altima, Civic, or Accord DOESN'T make the list?

All of those 25,000+ new Camry owners beware: http://www.newsy.com/videos/toyota_s_dented_reputation

If anyone is interested in more numbers, I have the top 20 sellers for September and August at this link:

http://www.examiner.com/x-1017-DC-Car-Examiner~y2009m10d1-With-Clunkers-over-few-signs-of-life-in-September-new-car-sales

Ceckel dont bring that bull crap of the floor mats, thats something that can be fixed, so dont expect sales to go down for toyota, any company is gonna have a flaw. I been an owner of Toyota vehicles for over 15 yrs and never had a problem.
Yes i know Japanese are beating us with their companies and iam actually happy, it maks us realize to be on top of the game and stop being lazie and start building things with quality. I am an American, but i dont go with that whole stereotype crap that i should only own Americans cars just because iam American.....
Japanese companies keep up the good work....

You could close your eyes and guess at least of these every month. F-Series, Camry, Corolla, Civic, Accord.

Is Impala strictly fleet sales, I seriously haven't seen any new ones on the road in the past month. Like, I've seen more Ford GTs than Impalas (seriously).

The Chevy Impala must be one of the blandest looking cars ever made. I guess that's why it's so popular with the fleets.

Don,

I have to reply to your post because it's just so shortsighted and sanctimonious. I have owned alot of cars over the years including GM, Ford, Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Subaru and Mazda. Currently, I own a Lexus, a Subaru and a Mazda. Is the quality of the cars that own today better or worse than quality of the cars I expect from any of the domestic manufacturers? Frankly, I don't know. But I do know that none of them have been in the shop for any warranty work. They've been flawless.

Last year, when I bought my Lexus and was turning in a Yukon Denali, I tried to buy a Buick Enclave. Unfortunately, the Enclave wound up more expensive (monthly payment) than my Lexus GS 350. That's correct. A pedestrian Buick costs more than a Lexus sedan. My Yukon was a great truck for 4 years and never cost me a dime. In fact, when I turned the truck in, it had the original brake pads on it. However, it was worth less than half of its residual value (I leased it) when I turned it in because of GM's insipient on again/off again value propositions on the sales floor. Like I said, my Yukon never cost me a dime so I thought GM had earned another shot at my business so I gave them a shot and they blew it.

On a previous vehicle, a GMC Sierra Denali I had a different experience. At 1200 miles, I was getting valve train clatter at start up. The GM dealer said "we have a TSB on that" and closed the case. I asked if we could start a new Sierra and listen for it since "they all do that". Service manager refused. Long story shortened by a lot, at 3,000 miles they installed the new engine that the should have installed several months previous to that. But the arguing and arm twisting necessary to get it done was absolutely exhausting. Again, did GM earn my business? Not this time around.

Here are the facts as I see them. If the domestics want my business, they need to build a vehicle that I want to buy at a price that's reasonable AND constitutes real value today and tomorrow. They need to stand behind the vehicle and not undermine it's long term value. They need to stop telling me that I don't know what i'm talking about when I have a problem. And they need to stop writing a TSB to excuse their less than stellar performances while relinquishing their responsibilities in so doing. After they have satisfied those criteria again, then we'll see.

I have three of four clients who had C4C deals with local dealers that began in August, but being that it took the dealer so long to process the rebate they didnt pick them up until September.

If their are a lot of dealers doing this, wouldnt that skew these numbers a bit?

well, we've all got stories.

I'm with Dan. Patriots buy Fords. Or at least lease them (if you're afraid of residual value and plan to get rid of your car before you wear it out).

3 Pac,

By making that comment, we can tell how smart it is.
Leasing is an even worse option than buying a vehicle that has crappy residue value

Yeah!! Go Ford, I'd like to see more fusion and Taurus