10 Things to Know About June Sales

Last week we closed the books on the first half of 2019, with June sales coming in at a healthy clip but the overall market down from year-ago levels. Fleet sales are stronger than retail sales and SUVs/Crossovers are performing better than cars. No surprises, really. We are rolling in a post-peak world right now. After a week of soaking on the numbers, our Industry Insights team picked ten takeaways from June sales that you might have missed:

1. First, let’s take a moment to salute Subaru. They posted a nearly 3% gain over June 2018, another record. That marks 91 consecutive months with year-over-year sales gains, a winning streak even Joey Chestnut would envy. (In case you missed it, Chestnut won the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on the 4th of July. Again.)
2. Not all cars are crazy expensive. The most affordable car last month: The Chevrolet Spark, with an average transaction price (ATP) of $15,401. We are estimating more than 2,000 buyers went low and bought a new Spark in June.
3. Fiat Chrysler CFO Richard Palmer was born in England but likely loves pickups like a native Texan. In June, in addition to selling 68,098 Ram pickups at $50,793 a pop, his Jeep Gladiator pickup had another strong month in the U.S., with sales of 4,231 and an ATP of a wallet busting $54,549. The ATP is down from May, as expected, but it’s still $54,549and second only to the full-size GMC Sierra in the pickup truck world.
4. The weather in June must have been sunny across the U.S., at least at VW dealerships. Last month, the Beetle Convertible outsold its tin top brother nearly 2 to 1. And it will be downhill from here. Production of the VW Beetle ended on July 9, 2019. Read “RIP VW New Beetle: The Passing of an Icon” from Matt Delorenzo, senior managing editor, Kelley Blue Book.
5. There was a time when Porsche was a sports car company, defined by the rear-engine 911 rocket ship. Nicht länger. In June, nearly 75% of the brands total U.S. sales came from two front-engine SUVs, the Cayenne and Macan.
6. New-vehicle inventories finished at under 4 million units for the second month in a row. Days’ supply in June was 67. For cars, the supply was 56, down 7 days year-over-year, but up from May. Light truck supply was 72 days, up 2 days from last year and 4 days from May.
7. With full-size pickups, it’s a six-horse race but really only three compete. The top 3 – F-Series, Ram and Silverado – racked up 195,635 sales in June. The bottom 3 – Sierra, Titan, Tundra – carried only 32,113. And worth noting, Titan and Tundra combined for a tally of 12,543.
8. In June, following a peculiar consistency of our market, sales of the top 30 vehicles accounted for 50% of the total volume. In all 296 different models registered at least 1 sale in June; 30 vehicles in the basement each sold less than 100 units. Highlight from the bottom: 3 Dodge Vipers were sold in June 2019. Production of the Viper ended in August 2017.
9. Like variety? According to Kelley Blue Book segmentation, the most competitive segment in our market is Entry-Level Luxury Car, where everything from the Cadillac ATS to Lincoln MKZ is available. The segment has 27 unique models, with BMW 3-Series at the top: 4,927 sold in June. Average MSRP in the segment: $47,787. Lease penetration is routinely above 55%.
10. How do you know when a company eats a bad sales month? They highlight commercial vehicles in their media announcement. That was Nissan last month, noting their NV200 compact cargo van hit 1,737 sales in June, a record and up 1.2 percent from last year. The rest of the brand? Down a distasteful 15.4%.