Small Cars Help Propel International Nameplate Market Share to 45.9 Percent in August 2005

Washington DC August 6, 2005; The AIADA newsletter reported that while topline numbers for Internationals certainly looked good in August, just under the hood purrs the real story -- smaller cars and more economical vehicles drove sales at many individual brands.

One stand out success is Scion, the specialty small car brand that looked like a risky move not too long ago. With only eight months of sales recorded, Scion has broken 100,000 unit sales, and is tracking to actually break the 150,000 mark -- with only three vehicles.

Toyota continues to lead the hybrid marketplace with the Prius -- registering 9,850 sales in August, the consciousness-raising car is now 133.1 percent ahead of last year’s sales to date. Honda delivered its 100,000 hybrid vehicle last month, and recorded a 25.6 percent increase for the Civic and a 21.8 percent sales increase for the Accord. Nissan shared the gas conscious wealth as well, seeing its Sentra model increase sales by 34.2 percent in August.

Suzuki came in with a 19.9 percent sales increase for the month, thanks to revived sales of its Aerio/SX model, which recorded a 42.7 percent monthly gain. This in turn helped overall numbers, which have been led most of the year by the Forenza/Reno platform. In August these two models recorded a 109.4 percent increase, helping Suzuki to an overall 7.8 percent gain for the year.

Kia had a 12.7 percent gain in August, thanks primarily to two vehicles, the Amanti and Spectra, which were up 34.5 percent and 54.4 percent respectively. And even though Hyundai had a somewhat disappointing month with its new Sonata [down 2.8 percent], sales of the smaller Elantra [up 27 percent], helped boost the company to an overall 9.3 percent gain for the month.