Here is the Rockies, the Subaru vehicles are very popular, and deservedly so. On highways in snowstorms, they’re nearly unstoppable vehicles, especially the Outback.
It has taken years for US auto manufactures to get their heads out of their rectums to make anything remotely similar to an Outback.
Naturally, “sales growth” favors cars that weren’t selling squat to begin with, and are just recovering from utter extinction by doubling their sales. Ignore this report.
We like to buy low mileage Cadillac DTSs (full size sedans) coming off lease. The price is right and the MPG rivals most of the heaps that are promoted these days. We regularly get 24 mpg on highway trips and 19 mpg around town. I have a 2003 with 140,000 miles on it and a 2008 with 20,000 miles on it.
My 2003 really has less than the 140,000 miles because we qualified for an engine replacement at 60,000 miles. Free. I love that car. I don’t know if I love the 2008 yet because my husband won’t et me drive it. It stays parked in the garage collecting dryer lint. LOL. He took it to MO this weekend to go hunting, and I’m left with the 2003. There is a reason for that which I won’t get into.
Anyway, the trick is to look for the luxury models with low mileage. I got the 2008 with all the options and 18,000 miles on it for $25,000 in April (orig. price $50-60,000). Both of these cars are wonderful.
We also had very good service out of 2 Chrysler LHS (1994) cars which we drove for over 200,000 miles each. We still own one of those cars, although I’m about ready to give it to charity. We never would have turned to Cadillac if Chrysler had continued the LHS model. I’d buy another if I could find a clean one with less than 50,000 miles on it. Those were great cars. After that, Cadillac was the only way to go, although the styling isn’t as exciting as the Chrysler.
Unfortunately, I’m guessing that Cadillac is about to discontinue the DTS because I never see them advertised any more. My dealer says no — that they are so popular that they don’t need to advertise. But, who really believes a car dealer?!
The reason for our car choices (I forgot to mention) is that we need front wheel drive, and we crave the luxury of those models because we drive cross country regularly.
The main Japanese brands, Toyota and Honda, suffered from huge supply chain issues due to the earthquake and tsunami, plus their designs are just flat out boring. The Koreans, Hyundai and Kia, have cars that are rivaling the Japanese on quality and have a little bit of design flair, plus they were available. Given all that, there is no surprise sales for the Koreans are way up.
I liked the Olds Cutlass Supreme as well. Now we have a 2007 Hyundai Sonata and it’s excellent and I recently rented a Ford Fusion and it was even better.
I dunno about this list, but without weighting the results for number of units sold I think it’s misleading. Here are the results rejiggered based on number of units sold (a better guage of popularity IMHO):
Hyundai Elantra - 162,153
Jeep Wrangler - 116,599
Ford Fusion - 100,621
Ford Escape - 94,120
Chevy Equinox - 84,495
Kia Sorrento - 79,659
Subaru Outback - 44,559
Kia Optima - 33,336
Cadillac SRX - 32,936
Subaru Legacy - 16,325
Other than the Jeep, which is a rather uncomfortable ride compared to the others, the rest make some sense. The Elantra is up where it is because it’s cheap, both to buy and to operate - it’s the new Ford Escort, if you will. It’s instructive to see that the Fords still beat the Chevy union-parasite junk. The Kias are interesting, too, but I’ve seen a few of the newer models and, like the Japanese brands of yore, it’s clear that Kia is following the same course, going from junky little beaters to some nice stuff. Hyundai is doing the same thing; some of their products are quite nice these days. It’ll be interesting to see if they do a luxury model spinoff the same way that the Japanese manufacturers did.
What a silly study. Big deal, poorly selling cars increase their sales.
Small numbers when increased 100% still result in a small number. Silly, silly study.
Meanwhile, all the Honda and Toyota owners are just breaking their vehicles in at 100,000 miles. Why buy a new one.
We are in the market for a “new-for-us” car in the next 6 months or so... Our Chevy Blazer has already seen its best days although I loved that “light truck” and its 4-Wheel-Drive - awesome when we lived in Colorado and went up to the mountains a lot.
We’re in Wisconsin now, so although I think 4WD is awesome for those really bad snowstorms, it’s not a necessity as it was in CO. I have to admit to not wanting to lose the size/height of the car. My husband had a run-in with a deer last year, and if he wasn’t in the SUV it would have been a LOT worse — just a moderate concussion for my husband, and car battered from windshield cracks from the face/antlers to a huge indentation when the body slammed against it on the passenger door driver’s side. I’m concerned about deer, but not to the point where I wouldn’t buy a “regular” car.
Suggestions as to a dependable, reliable “mid-size” sedan? We’re turned off on GM cars due to political concerns & union issues - but I think I might still buy a used Saturn if the price was right and the mileage low enough (I LOVED my Saturn SL2).
We’re probably looking at a foreign car for the first time ever - Toyota/Honda for dependability and length of life. I see discussion of Kia here — are they up to par with the Toyota/Honda cars with quality and dependability yet (I’m just not familiar with their cars - except that they reminded me of a Yugo-type when they first came out as they pushed the inexpensive feature so much when introduced).
Thanks for all the info. people have posted on the thread already — gives me places to start! LOL
