Plymouth USA Sales : 1990's

Sadly it just breezed in and out fairly quickly

Plymouth's success around this time was based on the Voyager van. It was taking about half of all sales for the marque but what did that say about the rest of the range?

The Horizon wasn't replaced although its role was taken up by the Sundance and then Neon. From 1990 to 1994, sales looked OK but it all down to the Voyager and the new Neon model. What was the next strategy?

Model	1994	1993	1992	1991	1990
Voyager	211,494	211,813	201,016	173,370	171,527
Neon/Sundance	123,170	86,635	66,734	53,818	65,590
Acclaim	63,837	78,374	73,220	92,352	113,776
Laser	4,696	16,005	24,494	28,201	40,177
Colt	3,732	12,947	10,221	12,457	18,818
Colt Vista	2,378	6,175	7,057	4,860	2,666
Horizon				505	11,937
Total US Sales	409,307	411,949	382,742	365,563	424,491

Well that seems to have been wave the white flag. The Breeze replaced the Acclaim but that wasn't hugely successful and the Prowler a tiny selling car. Everything else was either deleted or falling in sales. The brand left the Canadian market in 1999 and by the end of that year, the decision was made to end Plymouth altogether.

Model	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995
Voyager	138,644	156,971	156,056	153,862	178,327
Neon	71,561	78,533	86,798	105,472	106,205
Breeze/Acclaim	52,054	59,543	72,499	64,500	6,678
Prowler	2,365	1,594	120
Colt Vista					682
Total US Sales	264,624	296,641	315,473	323,834	291,892

Sales for the year 2000 were 87,000 and 31,500 the following one. 

Summary: In the end, the brand was basically just a badge, sharing models with other divisions with no real point of difference. Brand loyalty was waning and sales were falling, so there had to be only one outcome.

To see the first in the series (the 70's), simply click here.

The lights soon went out on the Plymouth Neon

Mercury USA Sales : 1990's

As you may have already guessed, the Mountaineer

Mercury started the decade slightly higher than the previous one and finished a bit lower. All that was missing was a upward sales spike in the middle. It needed some new models but would this enough for the brand name to survive?

The '90-'94 period witnessed the reintroduction of the Capri name, but this time a sports car from Australia. Then the Villager minivan arrived, a version of the Nissan Quest and manufactured in a joint venture plant in the US. Sales certainly improved in this period although only one model could manage a total above 100,000 units, the Sable.

Model	1994	1993	1992	1991	1990
Sable	113,282	120,977	116,623	100,331	96,803
Grand Marquis	96,631	85,195	94,607	94,588	101,737
Cougar	77,982	73,362	54,557	55,148	76,313
Villager	76,844	71,567	14,717
Tracer	57,266	45,754	43,127	45,602	34,494
Topaz	41,298	77,267	80,755	59,190	70,753
Capri	3,948	9,723	12,557	21,200	8,072
Total US Sales	467,251	483,845	416,943	376,059	388,172

The poorly executed and slow selling Capri was dropped and in came the Mountaineer medium SUV. However, sales remained much the same through the period form '95-'99 which must have been a disappointment.  

Model	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995
Grand Marquis	122,776	114,162	109,539	99,770	90,367
Sable	101,120	100,367	112,400	114,164	102,565
Cougar	56,831	38,216	30,516	36,015	53,387
Mountaineer	49,281	48,595	45,363	26,700
Villager	45,315	38,495	55,168	65,587	75,052
Mystique/Topaz	39,531	38,274	41,038	57,102	63,008
Tracer	23,146	33,077	43,589	47,797	51,988
Total US Sales	438,000	411,186	437,613	447,135	436,367

Summary: Mercury wasn't a disaster but neither was it proving very popular either. The next decade would be crucial if the marque hoped to continue.

For the 70's coverage in this series, simply click here.
For the 2000's, please click here.

The 1992 Sable. It does look bland

Slovakia Car Production By Brand : 2016-18

Slovakia makes more cars per head than any other country. Low wages is an incentive but getting enough workers for future expansion is an issue. Not a bad problem to have, I suppose. So what do they make here?

Kia: The Sportage and Ceed were the two main ones in 2018.

PSA: Citroën make the C3 and Peugeot the 208.

VW Group: They do mainly the Up!, Touareg, Citigo and Q7.

Brand	2018	%	+/-	2017	%	+/-	2016	%
Kia	225,415	24.1%	-6%	240,114	24.9%	-29%	339,500	35.0%
Citroën	217,992	23.4%	-2%	222,913	23.1%	211%	71,644	7.4%
Peugeot	195,678	21.0%	-4%	204,498	21.2%	-10%	226,325	23.4%
VW	160,338	17.2%	1%	158,804	16.4%	-3%	163,319	16.9%
Audi	84,018	9.0%	-5%	88,673	9.2%	-17%	106,207	11.0%
Škoda	36,057	3.9%	4%	34,681	3.6%	-16%	41,247	4.3%
Seat	13,998	1.5%	-13%	16,153	1.7%	-23%	21,008	2.2%
Total	933,496		-3%	965,836		0%	969,250

Land Rover and Porsche are additions to the production scheme of things for 2019. The numbers indicated that maybe a ceiling had been reached, However, it seems likely the one million number will be passed in 2019.

Turkey Production : 2017-18 (By Brand)

Sales in Turkey have been falling and appears to be having some impact on production volume. Just over a million passenger cars were made there, down 10.2% on 2017. Only Honda managed an increase, but its not a large operation so had little impact. The Renault Clio and Toyota C-HR are two of the main models made in Turkey.

Passenger Cars
17	18	Brand	Units '18	Share	+/-	Units '17	Share
1	1	Renault	336,778	32.8%	-7.7%	365,002	31.9%
2	2	Toyota	257,084	25.0%	-8.2%	279,902	24.5%
3	3	Hyundai	203,000	19.8%	-10.6%	226,979	19.9%
4	4	Tofaş Fiat	168,364	16.4%	-22.2%	216,437	18.9%
5	5	Honda	38,319	3.7%	33.3%	28,742	2.5%
6	6	Ford	22,916	2.2%	-11.3%	25,844	2.3%
		Total	1,026,461		-10.2%	1,142,906

The main contributor with light commercial vehicles is Ford with the transit van. Production was down 5.3% for the total but the Transit was up 1%.

Utility Vehicles
17	18	Brand	Units '18	Share	+/-	Units '17	Share
1	1	Ford	350,786	67.0%	1.0%	347,161	62.8%
2	2	Tofaş Fiat	133,386	25.5%	-20.5%	167,737	30.3%
3	3	Mercedes	20,856	4.0%	21.7%	14,173	3.1%
5	4	Peugeot	6,724	1.3%	11.6%	6,027	1.1%
4	5	Isuzu	4,461	0.9%	-29.9%	6,366	1.2%
		Others	7,476	1.3%	-10.9%	8,391	1.5%
		Total	523,689		-5.3%	549,855