USA 6 months 2014: Top two pick-ups pause growth

Chevrolet Silverado

* See the Top 267 best-selling models and Top 37 brands by clicking on the title! *

As is the tradition on BSCB, after going through US June figures we now explore year-to-date data to try and extract longer-term trends. Halfway through 2014, the US light vehicle market is up a cool 4% to reach 8.16 million units, and with an annualised sales rate of 17 million in June we are looking at an American car market at its best in 8 years! Brand-wise, the success story of the year is Jeep: up 45% and over 100,000 compared to the same time last year to an all-time record 332,802 sales, now teasing Hyundai (364,434 – also an all-time high) for 6th place overall. For more about this success, check out Strategy: Why Jeep is breaking all-time records in the USA.

US Jeep sales are up by a gigantic 45% year-on-year so far in 2014.

No less than 3 other manufacturers break records in the US Top 10, making it 5 in 10: Nissan is up 13% to 645,136 units, Kia is up 7% to 297,413 sales and Subaru is up 16% to 238,008 units, making its first appearance among the US’s 10 most popular brands. Ford keeps the lead of the brands ranking with 1.22 million units (-2%) ahead of Chevrolet at 1.03 million (+1%) and Toyota at 996,282 (+4%). Notice also GMC up 5%, Ram up 22%, BMW up 12%, Lexus up 17%, Buick up 13%, Audi and Infiniti up 14%, Lincoln up 16%, Mitsubishi up 30% and Maserati up 329% thanks to the Ghibli.

Mitsubishi sales are up 30% so far in 2014.

In the models ranking, the first observation when looking atop the sales charts is the two best-sellers, the Ford F-Series (-0.5%) and Chevrolet Silverado (-1%), have paused their growth for now. If for the F-Series the explanation is simple (the 2015 model is coming up soon), for the Silverado it isn’t as the current generation is only one year old. Granted, the Ram Pick-up is up 20%, the GMC Sierra is up 6% and the Toyota Tundra up 12%, so pick-up trucks do still have a rosy future in the US.

The Honda Accord is now #2 passenger car below only the Toyota Camry.

The Toyota Camry reinforces its third position (+7%), the Honda Accord (-4%) overtakes the Nissan Altima (+5%) for 5th place overall, the Toyota Corolla improves to +10% year-on-year in 7th position, and the Honda Civic (+5%) passes the Ford Fusion (+3%) for 8th place. Further down, the Ford Focus jumps up to #13, the Hyundai Sonata is up to #17 and in terms of year-on-year gains let’s salute the Nissan Rogue up 26% to #20, the Nissan Sentra up 41% to #21, Subaru Forester up 47% to #31 and the Dodge Grand Caravan up 21% to #34.

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One year ago: USA 6 months 2013: Ford F-Series strongest in 7 years

Full 6 months 2014 Top 267 models and Top 37 brands Ranking Tables below.