Auto News For Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - Ford Recalls 19,095 Mustang EcoBoosts

Here are the seven must-read, must-watch auto news stories, review and videos for Wednesday, June 24, 2015.

INSIDE A NICHE AUTO INDUSTRY
Mercedes-Benz's Unimog - you can call it the U-Class if you like - will return to Canada in non-road applications soon. But don't expect to see the incredibly capable beast sitting alongside C400 4Matics in Mercedes-Benz Canada's showrooms.

INSIDE THE PICKUP TRUCK INDUSTRY
Even with the new Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon twins combining to outsell the segment-leading Toyota Tacoma, small/midsize pickup trucks only account for 7% of new pickup truck registrations in Canada. That figure was much, much higher in the relatively recent past. Canada's five best-selling trucks are all full-size models.

INSIDE FORMER AUTO EXECUTIVES MINDS
Is the Cadillac CT6 going to be a success? Not according to former GM product czar Bob Lutz, who believes it's a terrific car that won't sell. "Luxury" is becoming more and more difficult to define, Lutz writes for Road & Track, and the Lincoln Continental may stand a better chance than the CT6 and reigniting interest in American luxury. In terms of new car sales in the U.S., Cadillacs currently rank 67th, 68th, 76th, and 137th.

TTAC
Land Rover USA is surging, and the Discovery Sport hasn't yet ramped up. But the impact Land Rover has in North America still falls far short of what the brand does in its home market, where Land Rover's market share this year stands at 2.8%. Land Rover earns 0.4% of the U.S. market, where the brand's sales are up 25% this year.

REVIEW
"For an honest warm hatch experience, we’d look no further." So says evo's Sam Sheehan in regards to the Suzuki Swift Sport. Here's why Suzuki died in North America.

RECALL
Ford is recalling 19,095 Mustang EcoBoosts (model year 2015) because, "Prolonged exposure to elevated underbody temperatures can cause degradation of the fuel tank and/or fuel vapor lines, which may eventually result in a fuel leak. In addition, this condition could cause seals in the parking brake cable to degrade, potentially affecting parking brake function. The Mustang, you'll recall, is selling like mad.

WATCH
Koenigseggs have always been a little bit crazy. How does the Swedish supercar market then go about making them look even crazier? By accelerating to 300 kmh and coming to a complete stop with, basically, no hands on the steering wheel. Oh, and pay attention to the braking, which seems to only take an instant.

Suzuki USA Is Bankrupt - Here's Why

Oh reader, hear ye my confession. I grow impatient and frustrated when I hear people generalizing car sales statistics based on their own personal windshield surveys. Just because your drive from Wichita to Denver revealed an inordinate number of newish Chevrolet Silverados doesn't mean the nation, the whole freakin' United States, is buying more Chevrolet Silverados than ever before. It doesn't mean the Ford F-Series isn't the best-selling vehicle line in America. It doesn't mean the American car-buying populace favours domestics, either.

Seeing more Silverados than normal on the I-70 means, on that day, that you saw more Silverados than normal. But did you keep a firm grip on the count? Are you positively sure there were more than normal?

Windshield surveys have no place in national statistics. But, when it comes to Suzuki, the fact that you haven't seen a new Suzuki in weeks does in fact mean something.

It means there aren't any new Suzukis to be seen.

Suzuki's U.S. operation filed for bankruptcy and sales will soon be suspended. Warranties will apparently be honoured. Deals on current inventory will undoubtedly be tempting. That Kizashi is a looker. I know, because I've seen one. Once, a while back. Parked at a Suzuki dealer.

But let's get serious. Why did Suzuki fail? Perhaps it started with the Samurai's rollover tendencies. But it all boiled down to a product lineup for which consumers had no interest. Just looking at the current Suzuki USA portfolio, we see a midsize car that's too small, doesn't generate enough power, and reaches for higher base prices than the best-selling Camry. 

The Grand Vitara isn't as antiquated as it looks, but in this front-wheel-drive crossover world, the off-road-ready GV appeared to be from another era. 

The SX4 is a twin of a Fiat which Chrysler knows we wouldn't want here. 

You could just buy an Equator at a Nissan dealer, but most truck buyers don't want a Frontier, either. And the Swift... oh, right. We were never offered the current, actually desirable Swift.

If people don't want the cars, they don't buy the cars. And boy did people not buy those cars. This wasn't news to Suzuki. Their own U.S. website still calls the Kizashi, "The auto industry's best-kept secret." 

Suzuki was only responsible for 0.18% of the overall new vehicle market in the first ten months of 2012. That's down from the 0.21% Suzuki achieved in 2011. 

From 2002 to 2010, Suzuki USA market share was as follows: 0.4% in 2002, 0.35% in 2003, 0.44% in 2004, 0.48% in 2005, 0.61% in 2006, 0.63% in 2007, 0.64% in 2008, 0.37% in 2009, and 0.21% in 2010. Over the course of the last decade, Suzuki sales peaked at 101,884 in 2007. 

So far this year, 120 different individual vehicle nameplates sold more frequently than the whole Suzuki brand. Chevrolet has sold nearly as many Volts as Suzuki has Grand Vitaras, SX4s, Kizashis, and Equators. Lexus sells twice as many ES sedans as Suzuki sells Grand Vitaras, SX4s, Kizashis, and Equators. Mercedes-Benz sells three times as many C-Class sedans and coupes as Suzuki sells Grand Vitaras, SX4s, Kizashis, and Equators. You get the picture.

Mourn the loss of Suzuki if you must. Competition is good for the industry, and this is one less brand competing for attention. But if you honestly take your Suzuki affection seriously, the mourning period should have started years ago. American car buyers didn't kill Suzuki with their lack of Suzuki buying. Suzuki killed Suzuki USA by not giving American car buyers what they wanted. And the euthanasia process didn't begin yesterday.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Historic Monthly & Yearly Suzuki Brand Sales Figures
Top 10 Worst-Selling Vehicles In America - October 2012
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings - October 2012 & YTD
U.S. Auto Sales Brand Rankings - 2011 Year End
Historic Monthly & Yearly Suzuki Kizashi Sales Figures

October 2012 Top 10 Worst-Selling Vehicles In America

It's not hard to look at these lists of America's worst-selling vehicles and find perfectly worthy and unsurprising examples. 

The Suzuki Equator doesn't sell well because it's a Suzuki, because Suzuki doesn't try to sell Equators, and because you could just buy the real Equator, which is a Nissan Frontier. Again, the Mitsubishi i MiEV doesn't sell well because it's a Mitsubishi, because it is all-electric and thus has the range of a well-trained Labrador Retriever, and because it looks like a crazy concept from a counterculture Japanese auto show.

But then there are cars which are simply punished by numbers. The current Porsche Cayman, for example, is no longer current. Cars.com says Porsche only has 17 Caymans in stock in the United States. (Compare that to Porsche's 559 units of Boxster inventory.) The Land Rover Range Rover is about to be replaced and, year-to-date, isn't selling that badly for an aging, soon-to-be-replaced SUV. Mercedes-Benz's $189,600-$198,400 SLS AMG actually sold significantly more often this October than last but, rather obviously, is not going to sell often at that price point.

If Ferrari and Lamborghini rivals suffered from a proper sales release you'd see they don't sell often, either. And unlike the identical Scion FR-S, the Subaru BRZ unfortunately isn't sold in more heavily-trafficked Toyota showrooms and thus doesn't sell as frequently. But does that mean Subaru USA has been disappointed with the BRZ's 3120 sales in the last six months? Not at all.

Every Vehicle, All 265, Ranked By U.S. October YTD Sales

As will always be the case in the future, historic brand and corporate totals (monthly and yearly going back to 2002) are now available through the dropdown menu at GCBC's Sales Stats page, along with results for more than 260 currently sold vehicles. That's where you'll find out that Mercedes-Benz sold 13,717 SL-Class roadsters in 2002, when Americans bought millions more cars each year. Chevrolet Corvette volume won't be much stronger than that this year, a year in which M-B might not sell 5000 SLs and SLS AMGs combined.

Below you'll find America's worst-selling vehicles ranked three different ways. Find it in yourself not to be too negative. And if you just can't help it, check out the best sellers in order to get some positivity into your life.

Rank	Worst-Selling Car  By Percentage Decline	% Change	October 2012	October 2011
#1	Porsche Cayman	- 96.7%	4	122
#2	Toyota Yaris	- 62.0%	2579	6792
#3	Mazda 6	- 55.9%	1515	3438
#4	Volvo S80	- 53.3%	163	349
#5	Land Rover Range Rover	- 49.3%	403	795
#6	Honda Insight	- 49.0%	251	492
#7	Infiniti EX	- 47.3%	247	492
#8	Acura TSX	- 47.0%	1577	2977
#9	Mercedes-Benz CL-Class	- 46.5%	54	101
#10	Jaguar XF	- 45.1%	278	506

Rank	Worst-Selling Car  By Volume	October 2012	October 2011	% Change
#1	Suzuki Equator	135	203	- 33.5%
#2	Subaru Tribeca	184	266	- 30.8%
#3	Honda CR-Z	244	289	- 15.6%
#4	Honda Insight	251	492	- 49.0%
#5	Suzuki Kizashi	310	480	- 35.4%
#6	Volkswagen Eos	331	564	- 41.3%
#7	Nissan 370Z	383	442	- 13.3%
#8	Subaru BRZ	402	-----	-----
#9	Mazda MX-5 Miata	461	354	+ 20.2%
#10	Nissan Cube	475	198	+ 140%

Rank	Worst-Selling Car  By Volume (All Vehicles)	October 2012	October 2011	% Change
#1	Porsche Cayman	4	122	- 96.7%
#2	Acura RL	21	22	- 4.5%
#3	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG	28	13	+ 115%
#4	Mitsubishi i MiEV	30	-----	-----
#5	Audi R8	47	69	- 31.9%
#6	Mercedes-Benz CL-Class	54	101	- 46.5%
#7	Nissan GT-R	86	101	- 14.9%
#8	Audi TT	129	194	- 33.5%
#9	Suzuki Equator	135	203	- 33.5%
#10	Mercedes-Benz G-Class	160	80	+ 100%

Source: Manufacturers & ANDC 
Vehicle must have been on sale throughout October, must not have been officially cancelled by its manufacturer, and must have been showcased on manufacturer's website in October. No longer deemed eligible: Chevrolet's Caprice PPV, Lexus LFA, Honda FCX.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Top 20 Worst-Selling Vehicles In America - October 2013
Top 10 Worst-Selling Vehicles In America - November 2012
Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - September 2012
Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - October 2011
Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - October 2012

U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - November 2011

Fiat 500 sales remained low in November 2011. Lower than Chrysler's expectations, for sure, lower than realistic expectations? I'm not so sure.

Chrysler's other brands reported positive November 2011 sales figures early on today. Chrysler sales jumped 92% in November. Jeep volume was up 50%. Dodge sales rose 43% and the Ram brand was up 7% despite the Dakota's 46% drop. Chrysler's best-selling model was the Ram pickup. Sales increased 8% to 19,739. 

Mercedes-Benz was the best-selling luxury brand in America in November, 6320 sales ahead of BMW. Benz sales surged 46% last month. BMW was up 7%. The only brand able to top Chrysler's year-over-year leap was smart. Sales nearly doubled from last November's 2011. 

13 automakers reported weaker sales this November than last. The worst of that bunch was Suzuki. Down 22% in 2011 sounds bad enough, but look at it this way: Ford sold 5338 vehicles per day in November, Suzuki sold 61. 

As a whole, America's new vehicle market was 14% stronger in November 2011 than it was a year ago. Through eleven months, the auto industry has grown 10%. November's growth came from numerous sources, many of which were domestic. Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, and Ram combined to provide the market with an extra 48,776 sales which weren't present last year. Yep, 40% of the market's growth can be attributed to those Detroit-based manufacturers.

The U.S. auto sales by brand table for November 2011 is completely filled in below. Check out last month's edition here or last November's here.

Updated: 10:44 PM AST on 01/01/2012

Rank	Automaker	November 2011	%  Change	Year To Date	YTD  % Change
#1	Ford	160,136	+ 20.3%	1,856,166	+ 17.6%
#2	Chevrolet	128,907	+ 9.6%	1,614,654	+ 13.9%
#3	Toyota	114,949	+ 7.2%	1,248,221	- 7.0%
#4	Nissan	76,754	+ 21.5%	854,136	+ 18.0%
#5	Honda	74,016	- 6.2%	931,885	- 5.2%
#6	Dodge/Ram	50,731	+ 25.9%	640,507	+ 18.6%
#7	Hyundai	49,610	+ 21.8%	594,926	+ 20.6%
#8	Kia	37,007	+ 39.1%	442,102	+ 35.7%
#9	Jeep	36,246	+ 49.8%	375,772	+ 44.4%
#10	GMC	29,470	+ 6.8%	356,026	+ 21.6%
#11	Volkswagen	28,412	+ 40.7%	291,899	+ 25.3%
#12	Mercedes-Benz	27,841	+ 46.2%	234,473	203468
#13	BMW	21,521	+ 7.1%	221,073	+ 12.3%
#14	Lexus	19,458	+ 6.7%	173,197	- 14.2%
#15	Chrysler	18,577	+ 92.2%	197,372	+ 7.1%
#16	Mazda	18,432	+ 20.4%	228,073	+ 9.6%
#17	Subaru	17,657	- 15.1%	233,288	- 1.6%
#18	Cadillac	11,145	- 5.6%	136,130	+ 4.5%
#19	Buick	10,880	- 7.2%	162,659	+ 17.6%
#20	Acura	9909	- 7.5%	110,170	- 6.7%
#21	Audi	9700	+ 3.6%	104,906	+ 15.2%
#22	Infiniti	8428	+ 3.0%	87,471	- 3.8%
#23	Lincoln	6305	- 17.6%	77,240	- 0.7%
#24	Volvo	4844	+ 18.8%	61,898	+ 25.8%
#25	Mini	4750	+ 70.5%	51,800	+ 25.4%
#26	Land Rover	3820	+ 30.7%	32,743	+ 16.2%
#27	Mitsubishi	3735	- 13.3%	73,988	+ 45.6%
#28	Scion	3553	- 7.3%	45,112	+ 8.1%
#29	Porsche	2255	- 6.6%	27,189	+ 19.5%
#30	Suzuki	1822	- 21.9%	24,053	+ 12.7%
#31	Fiat	1618	-----	17,444	-----
#32	Jaguar	915	- 18.1%	11,557	- 5.0%
#33	smart	414	+ 96.2%	4498	- 16.0%
#34	Saab	356	- 10.3%	5340	+ 41.9%
#35	Maserati	191	+ 15.1%	2083	+ 21.3%
#36	Bentley	138	- 13.2%	1560	+ 26.5%

Source: Automakers & ANDC
Premium brands appear in bold font. Red font indicates declining year-over-year sales.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - November 2012
U.S. Auto Brand Market Share Chart - November 2011
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - October 2011
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - September 2011
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - November 2010
Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - November 2011

Suzuki And Mitsubishi U.S. Sales: 2001 - 2010

Imagine General Motors suffering an 82% drop in sales over the course of the last decade. You know what this would do to the U.S. car market? For one thing, it would've meant GM only sold 875,279 vehicles in America in 2010 instead of the 2.2 million the conglomerate actually sold. But, tragically in a purely hypothetical fashion, an 82% decline over the last decade would have placed the city of Detroit in an even worse state of affairs. Through all of this, it's worth noting that the market as a whole has decreased by 33% since the 2001 calendar year.

Despite the market's overall decline, the Graph below showcasing Mitsubishi's drastic downfall since 2001, or even 2002, as well as Suzuki's sharp cliff-dive after 2007, doesn't mince facts. In fact, trends and lines and numbers like you see here should cause even the most casual observers to wonder why Mitsubishi and Suzuki maintain a presence in the United States. And how the two Japanese companies maintain a presence.

Suzuki sold 11,529 Grand Vitaras in 2002 plus another 27,295 XL-7s. In 2010, there were just 313 Suzuki XL-7 sales and just 4478 Grand Vitaras sold. The heavily-marketed and much talked about Kizashi, an intended rival for America's midsize sedan segment, found only 6138 buyers in 2010. As for Mitsubishi, the company sold 95,287 SUVs in 2003. Galant sales topped 65,000. (Mitsubishi sold 55,683 vehicles in total in 2010.) In varying volumes, Mitsubishi sold nine different models in 2003. Only seven models found buyers in 2010, one of which was the Raider and its nine customers. Galant sales totalled 11,492, down more than 80% since 2003 in what is still a popular segment, a segment which possesses America's two best-selling cars, the 2011 Toyota Camry and 2011 Honda Accord.

The second chart below compares Mitsubishi and Suzuki with other Japanese auto brands. Of the 4,475,698 Japanese cars sold in the United States in 2010, more than one-third were Toyotas; approximately one-quarter were Hondas. Mitsubishi's market share - and remember, this is just among Japanese vehicle sales - was 1.2%; Suzuki's just 0.5%. On the market as a whole, Suzuki's market share was as high as 0.6% in 2007 but stands at just 0.2% at the end of 2010. Mitsubishi possessed 2% of the whole U.S. new vehicle market in 2002 but held just 0.5% in 2010.

The 2010 Suzuki Kizashi appeared to be a signal that the famous motorcycle manufacturer wasn't giving up on the North American automobile marketplace. Of course, observers and analysts wonder if the Kizashi's failure has caused Suzuki to at least consider throwing in the towel. Mitsubishi, on the other hand, wants to start assembling more vehicles at its Illinois plant in 2012 or 2013. That doesn't sound like surrender. 

For a little perspective on Mitsubishi, consider the prices of its least and most-expensive cars. The 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer has a base price of $15,195, the 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution starts at $33,995. In between these two Lancer variants are a midsize SUV, a small SUV, an urban-runabout SUV with basically the same name as the small SUV, an ugly convertible and its ugly coupe twin, a midsize sedan, and a Lancer-based hatchback. 

Suzuki waters are not unmuddied. There's a Nissan Frontier-based pickup truck, the Equator. The Grand Vitara is a ladder-frame unibody competitor for America's best-selling utility vehicle, the Honda CR-V. The $13,499 2011 Suzuki SX4, particularly as the $16,999 SX4 Crossover variant, is a rebadged Fiat Sedici. Yep, the Fiat that now runs Chrysler. And then there's the aforementioned Kizashi, a handsome sedan wearing the badge of a brand that's never been able to remotely succeed in marketing midsize sedans to Americans before.

Is there hope for Mitsubishi and/or Suzuki? Check out the forward-thinking Mitsubishi i and the not-for-North America Suzuki Swift Sport as evidence that these two companies, or at least departments within these companies, have a clue.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2010 Year End
New Vehicle Market Share By Brand In America - 2010 Year End
Hyundai USA Market Share Growth: 1999-2010
The 15 Worst-Selling Vehicles In America - 2010 Year End

The 15 Worst-Selling Vehicles In America - 2010

During previous instances in which The Good Car Guy found the Worst Selling Cars in America or Canada, even when configuring lists for Sympatico Autos, there's been a host of ground rules. Foremost among those rules was the absence of luxury-branded vehicles. Luxury cars are by their very nature intended to sell in lower volumes. Punishing them for this is petty. Next up for exclusion were SUVs, trucks, crossovers, and minivans. This time, that rule has been forgotten. Finally, defunct brands or models which had already been killed off were obvious slow sellers, so they were ignored.

Not this time, however. For the sake of humour and remembrance - and because these vehicles haven't been discussed on GoodCarBadCar.net for ages - the 15 Worst-Selling Cars In America in 2010 include dead or mostly dead vehicles. They are either out of production, soon to be out of production, or not a part of the U.S. new vehicle market any longer.

Rank	Car	2010	% Drop
#1	Pontiac Grand Prix	7	-97.4
#2	Mitsubishi Raider	9	-99.5
#3	Mazda B-Series	10	-98.3
#4	Suzuki Forenza/Reno	12	-99.7
#5	Ford Taurus X	12	-99.8
#6	Pontiac G3	14	-99.8
#7	Saturn Astra	25	-99.6
#8	Chrysler Aspen	30	-99.5
#9	Mercury Sable	37	-99.4
#10	Pontiac Torrent	68	-99.3
#11	Chevrolet Uplander	76	-95.7
#12	GMC Envoy	84	-98.3
#13	Honda S2000	85	-89.3
#14	Pontiac G5	86	-99.3
#15	Pontiac Vibe	97	-99.7

Curiously, Mazda Canada has held on to the B-Series... for now. (Its donor vehicle, the Ford Ranger, is not long for this world.) B-Series sales were up 55% in 2010 to 2545. Speaking of Ford, the Taurus X evolved from the Freestyle. Certainly different in styling, the Freestyle/Taurus X's successor, the Ford Flex, isn't totally unlike its predecessors and doesn't sell much better, either. Mercury, Pontiac, and Saturn are all inoperative. The Honda S2000 is sadly no longer a part of Honda's fleet, let's fondly remember it's sweet shifter and screaming 4-cylinder. General Motors doesn't play the minivan game, so the Uplander is gone. The GMC Acadia has been a successful replacement for the GMC Envoy. You could say the GMC Terrain has been a more-than-adequate stand-in for the Pontiac Torrent. Could the Aspen ever return? It seems unlikely, but the name of its platform-mate, Dodge Durango, is returning on an all-new platform. Does anybody even know what the Suzuki Forenza or Reno was? And the Mitsubishi Raider? Sorry Mitsu, Americans buy F-150s, Silverados, Sierras, Rams, and a few Tacomas. Not much else.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - 2011 Year End
Top 10 Worst-Selling Cars In America - March 2010
Top 30 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In America - 2010 Year End
Top 5 Best-Selling Trucks In America - 2010 Year End
U.S. Auto Sales By Brand - 2010 Year End