USA June 2019: Ram (+45.4%), Volkswagen (+9.6%) gallop ahead in 6th straight market decline (-1.9%)

The Ram Pickup incredibly breaks its all-time volume record for the 6th time in the past year.

The U.S. new light vehicle market is still searching for its first monthly gain with June deliveries disappointingly down -1.9% year-on-year to 1.527.274 units. One bright spot is the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR) above 17 million for the third time in the past 4 months at 17.29m. Another encouraging point is the fact that incentives remain contained at -1% year-on-year to $3,747 according to ALG. The Detroit 3 continue to dish out larger-than average incentives alongside (more logically) premium brands whereas Subaru, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai are the least generous yet have all raised incentives vs. June 2018 (see detail by carmaker below). The average new-vehicle retail transaction price in June is up 3.1% or $1,014 to $34,036 in June still according to ALG, and therefore incentives as a percentage of average transaction price stand at 11%, down -3.9% from a year ago.

Only 2 out of the 7 top groups manage to gain ground in June: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (+1.9%) helped by all-time record sales at Ram (see further down) and Hyundai-Kia (+1.9%). General Motors (-0.9%) is almost there but can’t quite nudge ahead as do Toyota Motor (-3.5%) and Ford Motor (-4.7%). For American Honda (-7.3%) and most strikingly Nissan Motor/Mitsubishi (-13.1%), the pill is a lot harder to swallow. Below, the VW Group (+5.9%), BMW Group (+4%) and Daimler AG (+0.5%) all have a smile on their face.

Brand-wise, the Top 6 all fall, led by Ford (-4.6%), Toyota (-3.5%) and Chevrolet (-5.9%) with Nissan (-15.4%), Jeep (-11.7%) and Honda (-6.9%) hit the hardest. Ram (+45.4%) easily posts the best performance of the month, smashing its all-time volume record established in December 2018 at 75.227 vs. 68.195, bringing it just 1.600 sales below Jeep. Hyundai (+1.5%) extends its streak of year-on-year gains to 11 consecutive months while Subaru (+2.8%) stretches its own streak to 91 straight month of gains and Kia (+0.4%) manages to edge up at the tail end of the Top 10. Below, Genesis (+137.1%), Tesla (+126.2%), Buick (+18.4%), Mitsubishi (+10.5%), Volkswagen (+9.6%), Cadillac (+8.2%), GMC (+8%) and BMW (+7.5%) impress.

The Jeep Gladiator breaks into the Top 100 for the first time.

In the models ranking, only 11.000 sales below a Ford F-Series just inching by (+0.3%), the Ram Pickup (+56.4%) smashes its all-time volume record for an incredible 6th time in the past 11 months at 68.098 units, over 21.000 sales above its former archenemy the Chevrolet Silverado (-10.6%). The three best-sellers achieved these results with the help of hefty incentives, on average $4,198 on the Ram, $3,377 on the Silverado and $2,412 on the F-Series. The Toyota RAV4 (+3.8%) cements its domination of the SUV segment, selling almost 9.000 units more than the Honda CR-V (-8.6%) while the Nissan Rogue (-22.5%) has fallen off and the Chevrolet Equinox (+6.6%) posts a sturdy score but lies 13.000 below the RAV4.

Among passenger cars, the Honda Civic (-5.1%) is victorious this month ahead of the Toyota Camry (+2.4%) and Corolla (+2.5%) selling almost exactly the same amount. The Tesla Model 3 (+250.1%) shoots up 17 spots on May to #13, with the Hyundai Santa Fe (+36.2%) and Ford Fusion (+19.7%) also strong in the Top 30. The Ford Ranger (#63) tops new launches above the Kia Telluride (#82), Jeep Gladiator (#100), Chevrolet Blazer (#101) and Honda Passport (#110), the latter three snapping volume records as does the Nissan Kicks. The Mercedes A-Class (#147) is up 60 spots on May and we welcome the Hyundai Palisade (#226) and Cadillac XT6 (#266) in the U.S. charts for June.

Previous month: USA May 2019: Ram Pickup and Toyota RAV4 records can’t prevent 5th consecutive market drop (-0.1%)

One year ago: USA June 2018: Hyundai, Jeep and Subaru lift market up 5.6%

Full June 2019 Top 15 groups, Top 40 brands and Top 283 models below.