COMPARING AUTOMAKER SALES RANKS IN THE U.S. WITH CANADIAN SALES RANKS

Comparing the Canadian and American auto markets is part of what The Good Car Guy does... for a living. Do you not find it interesting, for instance, that Mitsubishi only manages to sell four times as many cars in the U.S. as in Canada while Mercedes-Benz sells more than eight times as many cars in the States? I do. Perhaps that's why you're reading this at work and I'm writing this for work.

Alphabetically arranged below, every major automaker which competes in both Canada and the United States are shown with their sales rank from the USA and Canada, based on statistics from July only. Pay special attention to the fact that the USA ranks only go to 24 because they lack Jaguar and Land Rover. Check out the full Canadian rundown of Sales Stats here or click here and here for the U.S. story.

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Acura USA: 14 - Acura Canada: 14

Audi USA: 16 - Audi Canada: 17

BMW USA: 12 - BMW Canada: 11

Chrysler USA: 5 - Chrysler Canada: 4

Ford USA: 2 - Ford Canada: 1

GM USA: 1 - GM Canada: 2

Honda USA: 4 - Honda Canada: 5

Hyundai USA: 7 - Hyundai Canada: 6

Infiniti USA: 15 - Infiniti Canada: 18

Jaguar USA: N/A - Jaguar Canada: 24

Kia USA: 8 - Kia Canada: 9

Land Rover USA: N/A - Land Rover Canada: 23

Lexus USA: 11 - Lexus Canada: 15

Mazda USA: 9 - Mazda Canada: 8

Mercedes USA: 13 - Mercedes Canada: 12

Mini USA: 18 - Mini Canada: 20

Mitsubishi USA: 19 - Mitsubishi Canada: 13

Nissan USA: 6 - Nissan Canada: 7

Porsche USA: 21 - Porsche Canada: 22

Saab USA: 24 - Saab Canada: 26

smart USA: 23 - smart Canada: 21

Suzuki USA: 21 - Suzuki Canada: 16

Toyota USA: 3 - Toyota Canada: 3

Volkswagen USA: 10 - Volkswagen Canada: 10

Volvo USA: 17 - Volvo Canada: 19

PORSCHE OF AMERICA SALES ANALYSIS FOR JULY 2009

Porsche sales tanked in July. In fact, year-over-year, Porsche sales have been routinely tanking. We read just how bad it was each month at the beginning of the next month; every month. The first graph below looks at the last four months of reporting for vehicle sales in the USA. Below that, a more detailed look at which Porsches are actually selling can be seen in the first pie chart. Compare that pie chart with the final Graph image to see how much times have changed for Porsche in the course of a year.

There's a whole lot more to the Porsche/Volkswagen saga than sales. That direct correlation was always missing - Porsche doesn't quite sell as many vehicles as VW, Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Lamborghini, Bugatti, and Bentley combined. It's still ironic, however, that the story has changed from Porsche taking over Volkswagen to Volkswagen swallowing Porsche. Considering Porsche's lack of recent success and VW's accomplishments of late, one could surmise that Porsche doesn't sell enough of its own cars to try and start selling other company's vehicles, too.

CANADA AUTO SALES JULY 2009

*Updated 11:00 AST, August 5th*

Unfortunately, only the preliminary numbers are available for automotive Sales Stats in Canada for last month. It's almost August 5th, but The Good Car Guy only has official reports from sixteen manufacturers. A more in-depth analysis will follow when more figures are available. Take special note of Ford. F-Series sales skyrocketed upwards about 60%. Try and avoid looking at GM's figures which plummeted. Chrysler's numbers look horrible but represent the best of '09. And smart's lowly total takes into account the vehicle which now sits beneath GoodCarBadCar Towers. U.S. Sales Stats can be seen here.

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Ford: +47.4% to 26,788

General Motors: -41.9% to 19,663

Toyota: -14.2% to 17,720

Chrysler: -10.4% to 15,958

Honda: -22% to 11,340

Hyundai: +37.8% to 10,488

Nissan: -3.2% to 6,832

Mazda: -18.5% to 6,491

Kia: +29.6% to 5,110

Volkswagen: +14.6% to 4,018

BMW: +12.1% to 2,398

Mercedes-Benz: +9.5% to 1,978

Mitsubishi: +18.7% to 1,901

Subaru: -3.2% to 1,763

Acura: +7% to 1,644

Lexus: +13.9% to 1,512

Suzuki: -8.7% to 1,158

Audi: +40% to 822

Infiniti: -1.5% to 702

Volvo: +39.4% to 591

Mini: -11.8% to 442

smart: -42% to 290

Porsche: +37% to 200

Land Rover: -24.6% to 129

Jaguar: -3.2% to 90

Saab: -85.8% to 38

ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE V12 SCREENSHOTS THROW PERCEPTION TO THE WIND

Around four-feet high and six feet wide, the Aston Martin Vantage V8's proportions are clearly sporting. In V12 form, the hood gills, spectacular wheels, and slightly lowered ride height add to the Vantage's aura. Check out the pictures; each one a screenshot from Jeremy Clarkson's test drive of the Aston Martin Vantage V12 on Top Gear.

Quite clearly, perspective is completely lacking. The background is blurred by the speed. Nevertheless, don't you think the Aston Martin Vantage V12 looks extremely long in these pics? Looking far more DB9-like than one would have believed, the V12 Vantage in this video these pictures must explain itself.

Here are the stats. At 172.5 inches long, the V12 Vantage is thirteen inches shorter than the Aston Martin DB9; about five inches shorter than Hyundai's Elantra, three inches shorter than a Porsche 911, but an inch longer than the BMW 135i. In other words, the V12 Vantage is a whole lot smaller than it looks. Long, low, and wide makes a case for grace.

TOP 10 BEST-SELLING AUTO BRANDS IN AMERICA FOR JULY OF 2009

Add up all the luxury vehicles sold in July by Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lincoln, Cadillac, Audi, Infiniti, Porsche, Saab, Hummer, Volvo, and Acura. Your total? Same as mine - 95,492. Obviously, this doesn't count sales of Jaguars and Land Rovers (because Tata doesn't like to share numbers) or the mega-expensive Ferraris and Bentleys. But all those automakers sell in lowly totals.

95,492 is an interesting total. See, that's fewer vehicles than Toyota managed to sell in July. In fact, 95,492 sales is less a total smaller than that achieved by Ford, Chevrolet, or Honda. The point? Cash For Clunkers (CARS.gov) no doubt helped the mainstream manufacturers at the end of the month more than it could the premium brands. Cars priced at $45,000 or above weren't included in the program. More importantly, the coverage you you see both here at GoodCarBadCar.net and in the mainstream automotive press skews heavily toward the outrageously expensive machinery. In reality, the twelve luxury brands mentioned above were outsold by the top twelve mainstream brands by 711,597 vehicles in July. That's without the 20,590 vehicles sold by Volkswagen, or the 16,549 of Chrysler's, the 5,968 Saturns sold, or the 19,032 Mazdas sold. Take a look at the Graph below to get a grasp of how big the big guns really are.

LUXURY CAR SALES IN AMERICA FOR JULY OF 2009

Volvo showcased the strength of its products in July; as well as the draw of the deal. Without a doubt, incentives have been a big part of every automaker's marketing portfolio this year, so suggesting that Volvo's strong month in July had more to do with Cash For Clunkers or low finance rates than good cars is the same as applying that theory across the whole industry. Volvo, for the second month in a row, was the only manufacturer of premium cars to sell more vehicles in the USA this July than in July of last year.

Check out June's luxury auto sales graph here

However, that doesn't mean Volvo sold at a rate BMW, Lexus, or Mercedes-Benz could tolerate. Sure, Volvo sales were up 26%... to 6,441. Lexus sales were down 17% but the Japanese luxury dominator still managed to sell about 12,000 more automobiles than Volvo. Before looking at the Graph below for your luxury Sales Stats fill, remember that Cash For Clunkers wasn't a program available to people buying cars with an MSRP over $45,000. Also, combined sales of Hummer, Saab, and Porsche total fewer than 3,000.

EXCELLENT NEW BUICKS MAKE PREVIOUS-GENERATION BUICKS LOOK TERRIBLE

During the lead-up to the bankruptcy of General Motors, formerly the largest auto conglomerate in the world, many onlookers were confused by the selection of Buick as one of the brand selected to survive. Inside America, Pontiac outsold Buick in 2008 by some 130,000 vehicles. In fact, Buick was out-sold by Cadillac, a brand competing in a higher price spectrum where sales are limited.

Since that point, casual observers have learned much of Buick's strength in China. There was a theory strongly held by those in the know, not too long ago, which clearly denoted any product that succeeded in the USA as a product worth selling. Forget that. Any product loved by China is now the product worth selling. And China loves Buick.

Still, there had to be something else that made GM keep a brand with a dwindling customer base (they're all dying) over a brand (Pontiac) that sells more cars in the home market and has, let's be honest, a more exciting portfolio.

The "something else" can clearly be seen in the pictures below. Buick hasn't been selling many vehicles in the U.S. over the last few years, and the reason can be easily discovered in the first, third, fifth, and seventh pictures of this album. Running contrary to those pics are the second, fourth, sixth, and eigth. The first group shows the cars being replaced; the second group are new Buicks.

Pictures don't sell cars, true. But we happen to know the Enclave CUV/SUV/Crossover/Thing is a wonderful vehicle in which to spend time. Recent reviews of the 2010 LaCrosse point to its wonderful engines, capable chassis, and sublime luxury.

Read the words at the bottom of this page and you'll wonder how The Good Car Guy can say these things about Buick while suggesting that he "thoughts and feelings of a generation of first-time new car buyers". Consider this: The Good Car Girl and I were walking to a funky downtown store called "The Black Market" earlier today. Just steps from the store, a white Enclave nearly came into contact with our knees. I looked at the grille, took note of that badge, and thought not angry thoughts. Rather, "I want one of those", were the first words that sprung to mind.

Buick, though definitely not represented by a generation of LOL, TTYL, txt mssging, or Twittering urban hipsters, is still quickly progressing to cool and hip. Cool and hip enough for our older siblings.