It would be easy to pay off the fall as derived from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, but I'm not completely sure that is the case. All three cars are built in United States, but only the Civic was known to have delays in production related to disasters in Japan. Worse still, has been the new Civic for sale since April, which raises the question of consumer satisfaction with the redesign.
Despite the high gas prices of about registration, four of the top ten vehicles sold were trucks or sport utility vehicles. Full size Ford and Chevy trucks took the top two spots, the Ford Escape came in sixth and the Ram van took the tenth place. Medium-sized sedans dominated much of the ten, including Chevy Malibu in third place, Nissan Altima in the fourth, the Ford Fusion in the fifth and the Hyundai Sonata in the seventh.
Perhaps the most notable is that national compact cars have beaten their rivals of import, and I simply do not remember the last time that this happened. Graznó Chevy Cruze for Ford Focus to claim the position of eight, and both surpassed in sales the Hyundai Elantra (11), Honda Civic (13), Toyota Corolla (16) and VW Jetta (18). To be fair with Hyundai, I believe supply is limiting the sales of the new Elantra, and the manufacturer is doing what they can to build for the demand.
A month is not a trend, and only time will tell what will be the "new world order" of car sales. For now, the things omen for domestic, demonstrating good manufacturers product at a fair price draws buyers in showrooms.
