30 August 2019

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

28 August 2019

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

11 August 2019

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.

09 August 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