Forbes.com: Style, Not Price, Sells Cars

I spend hours studying car and truck sales. After staring at the results for so much time, new insights jump out at me.

One discovery: Last year Chrysler sold 145,000 PT Cruisers but slightly fewer Dodge/Plymouth Neon cars--only 137,000. Chrysler likes to say the Neon is completely different, but the PT has plenty of components from the Neon parts bin. The PT is a $20,000 vehicle and the Neon costs maybe $13,000 after rebates.

The Neon was good-looking and a contender when it first came out, but has gone downhill and is now a low-end car with a not much of a reputation. The PT is beloved for its retro look and its efficient use of space. So the shorter and more expensive PT outsells the Neon.

The message?

That style, panache, if you like, and not price, can be the key to success, even in the small-car field where price was supposed to mean everything. Give customers what they want and they will pay the price.

Of course it didn't help that Chrysler axed the Plymouth brand, and with it the Plymouth version of the Neon. Or that when the Neon received a modest makeover for the 2000 model year, the two-door version was discontinued.

In the small-sedan field, the Honda Civic--larger and pricier than the others--is the top seller. This time it's quality and reputation for which people are paying a premium.

Sure, low-end Hyundais still sell ( Hyundai was up a whopping 37% in total sales last year), and General Motors ' Chevy Cavalier, a cheap car, does well despite its age. Price still counts. But a small vehicle can get a higher price, and sell in volume, if it's special.

Another revelation:

Ford Motor boasts that its F-Series truck is the nation's best-selling line with 911,597 sales in 2001.

But take those Ford F-Series sales apart, and you'll see that the F-150 Ford pickup (two doors, four doors, two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive) account for about 346,000 of the nearly 912,000 sales.

Ford sells roughly 390,000 of the 912,000 Ford F-Series as giant Super Duty pickups, most of which go to commercial buyers.

And the SuperCrew, which is a sort of sports utility cab with a short-bed pickup attached, brought in about 170,000 units.

So what does this mean?

Well, for bragging rights, the standard Chevy pickup, the Silverado 1500 (again, not the big Chevy Heavy Duty models) actually outsold its basic Ford F-150 counterpart. The score: 465,000 for Chevy versus 346,000 for Ford.

Beyond bragging rights, though, these numbers say that the Ford regular pickup line isn't as strong as we all thought. Even Chrysler's Dodge Ram with 250,000 sales last year, excluding its heavy-duty versions, is a close competitor.

And in the extra-big pickups, GM (Chevy plus GMC) is closing in on Ford. GM is gaining ground because of its improved truck line and powerful new diesel engine. Ford hopes that its big new diesel coming later this year will keep its super big boys from being passed by GM.

Ford also gets a fourth product off its F platform, the new Lincoln Blackwood. If Ford could come up with a few more vehicles off this architecture, it would help with the firm's turnaround efforts. Increasing volume with a common platform is a key to profits in Detroit.

You see some of the same trend in the Ford Explorer numbers: 416,000 Explorer sales reported, but when you break it down, only 282,000 of those are the familiar four-door Explorer. Another 71,000 are for the SportTrac, an SUV/pickup hybrid, which is actually built off a separate platform; another 63,000 come from the Explorer two-door, a low-rent vehicle built off the previous Explorer platform.

This year Chevy has added two models to its Chevy Trailblazer line (a Ford Explorer competitor): a stretch version with a third-row seating, and a pickup/SUV combo. From what we've seen, I'd predict good success.

More news from the numbers: Many people know that last year Honda sold more automobiles (excluding trucks) in the U.S. than DaimlerChrysler . That's Chrysler and Mercedes combined, including the Chrysler PT as a car. The big surprise is Canada, where last year Honda sold 119,000 automobiles versus 83,000 cars for Ford. That's right, Honda sailed past Ford in car (not truck) sales in Canada. Even with 11,0000 Volvo and Jaguar cars thrown into the Ford total, it wasn't close.

Those Honda guys know how to build cars, and Ford messed up big time in Canada. Now Honda is expanding its truck lines, and it's quite possible that Honda's Odyssey will be outselling GM's minivans (the Chevy Venture plus Pontiac Montana)--if not this year, then the next.

It's always worth taking a closer look at the numbers.