February 2016 Auto Sales: Mostly Good News

The majority of automakers were able to ride the strongmomentum from January salesinto February auto sales. Trucks and SUVs were still the name of the game, with Ford's big 20-percent gain mostly thanks to strong SUV sales. Fiat Chrysler also posted an increase of 12 percent, with Jeep and Ram carrying most of that load. General Motors was the sole dark spot among U.S. automakers, though it said that its 1.5 percent decrease was mostly due to a lower mix of fleet sales.

Honda and Nissan posted double-digit increases, both setting all-time February records, and Kia and Hyundai also set records this month. Things weren't so bright in the luxury sphere, as Mercedes-Benz and BMW both posted declines this month, allowing Lexus to claim the second-place spot among luxury brands so far this year.

Overall sales grew 6.8 percent compared with last year to a total of 1.3 million units, according toAutomotive News, while estimates for the SAAR coming in around 17.7 million, beating last year's total of 17.5 million units.

And now, on to the numbers…

General Motors: 227,825 units sold, down 1.5 percent

*New Malibu jumped 53.3 percent up to 21,418, but Cruze, Equinox, and Silverado were all down and dragged Chevrolet to a 0.7 percent decline

*Some of overall decline attributable to 39 percent drop in fleet sales

*Cadillac was up slightly, 0.9 percent increase to 11,840, Escalade up 22.2 percent, SRX continues to be best-seller, up 5.5 percent to 4,017

*Addition of 495 Cascada convertible sales helped Buick get a 2.3 percent increase, LaCrosse down 29.5 percent in model changeover

*GMC dropped 6.8 percent on decline of Terrain, Canyon, Sierra relatively flat, up 0.3 percent to 15,202

Ford: 217,192 units sold, up 20.4 percent

*Focus (up 32.8 percent) and Fusion (up 12 percent) helped propel cars to 19 percent increase

*SUVs still outsold cars, 65,016 to 63,886 thanks to Edge (up 91 percent to 12,445) and Explorer (up 18.5 percent to 20,014)

*F-Series was up 9.9 percent to 60,697

*Lincoln jumped 30 percent, all models increased, most of all MKX, up 109.3 percent to 2,375 to become brand's best-seller

Toyota: 187,954 units sold, up 4.1 percent

*RAV4 continues to grow, up 16.3 percent to 25,523, Camry down 1.6 percent to 32,405

*New Tacoma up 14.5 percent to 14,172

*Lexus was up 0.4 percent to 23,090, all cars down but NX was up 39 percent to 3,709 and new RX was up 10.8 percent to 7,192

*With a few months to go before its demise, Scion was up 52.2 percent to 5,882 thanks to addition of iA and iM

Fiat Chrysler: 182,879 units sold, up 12 percent

*Jeep up 23 percent to 68,228, Grand Cherokee best seller at 15,380

*Ram brand up 27 percent, pickup was 38,555 up 23 percent

*Soon-to-be-phased-out Chrysler 200 declined 58 percent to 6,597

*Fiat down 9 percent to 2,993, despite 1,547 sales from 500X crossover

Nissan: 130,911 units sold, up 10.5 percent

*Sentra up 34.2 percent to 20,599

*Rogue, Altima flat, up 0.7 and 0.5 respectively

*Daring design works, Maxima up 128 percent to 5,222, Murano up 86 percent to 7,445

*Infiniti down 11 percent to 10,371, all models down except for QX50 and QX70

Honda: 118,985 units sold, up 12.8 percent

*New Civic sedan was best-seller, up 31.7 percent to 27,707

*Accord, up 19.3 percent to 25,785 barely outsold CR-V, up 13.2 percent to 25,250

*Acura was down 1.7 percent to 12,773, MDX was best-seller, down 5.7 percent to 4,292

Hyundai: 53,009 units sold, up 1 percent

*Sonata was best-seller, up 25 percent to 17,470

*New Tucson increased 90 percent to 7,336

*Elantra compact and Santa Fe crossover both fell

Kia: 49,737 units sold, up 13 percent

*Soul was best-seller, up 18.8 percent to 11,842

*Optima was down 16.9 percent to 9,630

Subaru: 42,011 units sold, up 1.6 percent

*Modest gains from best-selling Forester (up 6.8 percent to 12,239) and Outback (up 2.8 percent to 11,952)

*Impreza compact fell 8.2 percent to 4,432, related Crosstrek fell 4.3 percent to 6,129

Mercedes-Benz: 25,632 units sold, down 0.5 percent

*C-Class was still best-seller even when dropping 13.7 percent to 6,102

*New GLC crossover was up 84.1 percent to 3,278 compared to GLK predecessor

*Vans were up 35.5 percent to 2,269 including new mid-size Metris

*Smart was down 7.9 percent to 422

BMW Group: 25,337 units sold, down 12.4 percent

*All cars down except for 2 Series, up 107.5 percent to 1,085 and 7 Series, up 7.7 percent to 616

*X3 up 19.5 percent to 3,733, X5 down 7.4 percent to 3,842

*Mini brand down 23.7 percent to 2,839, new Clubman records 381 sales

Volkswagen: 22,321 units sold, down 13.2 percent

*Still unable to sell diesels, Golf, Jetta, Beetle, Passat were all down

*Tiguan was up 78.4 percent to 3,245

Mazda: 21,544 units sold, down 16 percent

*CX-9, down 72.5 percent to 461 is in a model changeover, loss of Mazda2 and Mazda5 also contributed to decline

*New MX-5 Miata was sole bright spot, up 48.5 percent to 759

Audi: 11,718 units sold, up 2.3 percent

*New Q7 up 63.3 percent to 1,653

*Q5 was brand's best-seller, down 2.8 percent to 2,421

Jaguar Land Rover: 7,929 units sold, up 25 percent

*Land Rover up 31 percent to 6,417

*Jaguar up 7 percent to 1,510

Mitsubishi: 7,870 units sold, up 4.5 percent

*Outlander Sport was best-seller, up 8 percent to 2,591

Volvo: 5,260 units sold, up 33.1 percent

*New XC90 was up 4 percent to 2,472

Porsche: 3,561 units sold, up 11.2 percent

*Cayenne was best-seller, up 27 percent to 1,328

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Toyota Camry Nissan Altima Honda Accord Ford Fusion Chevrolet Malibu

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Honda Civic Toyota Corolla Nissan Sentra Ford Focus Chevrolet Cruze

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