USA August 2014: Honda Accord, Toyota RAV4 at all-time high

The Honda Accord hits its highest-ever monthly volume in the US this month.

* NOW UPDATED with the Top 261 All-models and Top 38 brands! See title *

U.S. light vehicle sales, led by double-digit increases at Chrysler Group and Nissan Motor Corp, remained robust in August, helped by Labor Day holiday deals and continued demand for light trucks and crossovers: up 6% year-on-year to 1.586.374 units and bringing the year-to-date total to 11.191.068 sales, up 5% on 2013. Chrysler posted a 20% increase amid surging sales of the Ram pickup (+33% and best August since 2003) and Jeep brand (+49%). Nissan advanced 12%, Toyota Motor Corp. had its 6th consecutive monthly gain, up 6%. Deliveries slipped 1% at General Motors and were up slightly at Ford Motor Co. The Volkswagen brand continued to slump, down 13% percent, but sibling Audi gained 22% as strong A3 sedan sales propelled the brand to its best monthly US sales tally in company history at 17,101 vehicles in August.

The New A3 sedan pushes Audi to its best-ever monthly result in the US.

The seasonally adjusted annualised pace of sales – a key barometer of the industry’s health – soared to 17.5 million. The US auto industry last saw a 17 million light-vehicle SAAR in July 2006 and a 17.5 million SAAR in January 2006. “August’s industry sales results are looking even stronger than anticipated, which is a good sign for the industry,” said Fred Diaz, Nissan’s senior vice president for sales and marketing, and US operations. “The industry had its best August in over a decade with sales topping 1.5 million vehicles,” Bill Fay, Toyota division group vice president and general manager, said in a statement.

Jeep US sales are up 49% year-on-year in August .

In the models ranking, below the Ford F-Series down 4% to 68,109 sales, the Honda Accord is up 3 spots on July and 32% on August 2013 to simply deliver the nameplate’s best-ever monthly volume since its introduction in the country over 30 years ago at 51,075 units! An astounding performance from Honda, however the Toyota Camry still leads the passenger car race by far at 306,471 sales so far in 2014 (+7%) vs. 265,673 for the Accord (+3%). Another all-time record breaker this month is the Toyota RAV4: after lifting its all-time high to 26,779 sales in July, it smashes this record only one month later, bringing it to 35,614 units, up 52% year-on-year and earning the nameplate a 6th place, also its best-ever monthly ranking in the US, also reached in March 2010…

The Acura TLX lands directly at #136 in the US this month.

As far as recent launches are concerned, notice the Audi A3 up a further two spots to #132 with 2,430 sales, the Lincoln MKC also up two to #157, the Ford Transit up 31 to #177, the BMW i3 up a beautiful 37 ranks on July to #182 with 1,025 units and the BMW X4 up 12 to #220. Finally, we welcome 3 all-new models in the US ranking this month: the Acura TLX at #136 with 2,286 sales, the Audi Q3 enjoying a late arrival in the country at #235 and 243 units for now and the BMW i8 landing at #260 with 9 sales in August.

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Previous month: USA July 2014: Toyota RAV4 at all-time record in market up 9%

One year ago: USA August 2013: Honda CR-V and Chevrolet Equinox hit record levels

Full August 2014 Top 261 All-models and Top 38 brands Ranking Tables below.