June's Top 10: Chevy Cruze is best-selling car in USA

The March disaster in Japan continued to scramble the list of Top 10 best-selling vehicles in June, leaving Chevrolet's new compact Cruze on top as the bestselling car in the USA -- the spot typically held by Toyota's Camry -- and the No. 3 vehicle overall.

Camry did make the Top 10 -- the only Japanese vehicle to do so -- but as the No. 4 car and 7th overall, with sales down 24.8% from last June. Toyota says production is getting back to normal, so expect Camry to move back up -- boosted this fall by the rollout of the redesigned Camry for 2012. Neither Honda nor Nissan had a vehicle in the Top 10. The top Honda was the Civic at 15th, with sales down 34% vs. last year. The top vehicle for Nissan, which was not hit as hard by the disaster, was the Altima at 11th, with sales up 22.7%.

No. 1 and 2 overall were Ford's F-series and Chevy's Silverado, which had sales gains over last year of 6.7% and 5.1% respectively. They were near the industrywide gain in June of 7.1%.

The two pickups on top, plus the Ram at No. 8, should ease some fears that economy has shifted into reverse. Businesses and tradesmen appear to still be spending.

Behind the Cruze, giving Chevy a 2-3-4 finish on the list was the midsize Malibu, still showing appeal well into its cycle -- the redone 2013 will be on sale in the first quarter of next year, a few months after the new Camry.

Ford's new Focus was the third car and sixth overall, behind the brand's venerable Escape small SUV.

Hyundai's new Elantra was 10th overall and the No. 6 car. The brand continued its sales roll with a 15.6% gain, while corporate sibling Kia was up more than 41%. Taken together (which is how their sales are reported in most of the world) they've passed Nissan as the sixth-largest automaker in U.S. sales.

In order here are the USA's Top 10 best-selling vehicles for June, with their monthly sales and change from June 2010, according to Autodata:

1. Ford F-Series, 49,618, +6.7
2. Chevrolet Silverado, 32,579, +5.1%
3. Chevrolet Cruze, 24,896, new
4. Chevrolet Malibu, 23,737, +14.6%
5. Ford Escape, 22,274, +43.3%
6. Ford Focus, 21,385, +41.2%
7. Toyota Camry, 21,375, -24.8%
8. Ram Pickup, 21,362, +34.7%
9. Ford Fusion, 20,808, 13.0%
10. Hyundai Elantra, 19,992, 40.3% 

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"We'll focus on Cruze all year long"

Joel Ewanik was recently named General Motors' global marketing chief, so we sat down with him and Buick marketing honcho Roger McCormack at the Detroit Auto Show to find out how they plan to get more attention for GM's brands.

• For both men, the priority is to get people in seats since GM appears to realize that it can't just rely on people to trust its marketing. "We're making great cars – the Cruze was the first car in its segment to get five stars under the new NHTSA standards," Ewanick said, "we need to get people in sitting in the cars." For Buick, McCormack said as well that his brand will focus on "Activities to get people in cars, sitting in cars, experiencing cars."

• On the subject of settling Cadillac's advertising, Ewanick said, "With Cadillac we're trying to create some dissonance, putting them in ski resorts to remind people that Cadillac is a great brand for their snow activities with the all-wheel-drive sports wagon and CTS, SRX and Escalade." To that end, the brand has done deals with the Northstar ski resort in Lake Tahoe and they're doing one with Vail, in Colorado.

• The scope of the "Chevy Runs Deep" campaign is being broadened from its historical associations to current environmental and community efforts. "I wanted to do wind farms and solar panels, something sexy," said Ewanick. But after talking to people in the field he decided on more community-minded efforts. "Most schools aren't insulated, and if we weatherized them properly they could save on heating." A month ago Chevrolet released a commercial touting the initiatives: buy a Chevrolet and the company will invest in programs that "over the next few years" will reduce carbon emissions by 8 million metric tons.

• The Volt is the brand's best halo car: "People aware of the Volt are more likely to buy into a Chevrolet – it's selling the Cruze, the Malibu and heavy duty pickups because the engineering sells the brand." Speaking of the Cruze, expect to see a lot of it this year. "We don't have a lot of big launches for the year, so the messages will focus on Cruze, month in, month out, all year long."

• Both McCormack and Ewanick described Buick as "more approachable luxury." When asked if that meant Buick was no longer gunning for Lexus, McCormack said "Lexus is still very much a key competitor, as well as Acura, Infiniti, Audi in some instances and Volkswagen in some instances." The key to that appears to be not in exact head-to-head competition (a la the CTS), but finding some in-between space to occupy. "What we do very well is play in luxury mainstream," McCormack said, "positioned betweeen luxury and compact luxury, above mainstream compact. We bake in all the luxury, amenities and craftsmanship, deliver all things the consumer values but the consumer feels like they got a good deal."

• If that's the Buick formula, "the same formula as on the LaCrosse," the point now is to spread it over a wider range of vehicles like the Regal and Verano – and that will also reduce the average age of the Buick buyer. "Look, the age is the age, but it's a reflection of the segments. We started with the Lucerne, LaCrosse and Enclave, all of those compete in segments that will get an older consumer."

• As for Buick's ad frontman, "Kevin Bacon is the Buick spokesperson," Ewanick said, "and we don't see that changing."

image: indianautosblog.com
image: steeringnews.com

text: Autoblog

2012 Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback.

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