Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Toyota cars leading the sales pack
South Florida drivers prefer import sedans
Import sedans remained the top choice for car buyers and lessees in South Florida during the first three months of 2018, while vehicle purchasers nationwide continued to prefer big powerful pickup trucks.
The Sun Sentinel asked the automotive market reporting firm IHS Markit to compile a list of bestselling personal vehicles for the two dominant South Florida designated market areas — Miami-Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce — during the first three months of 2018, to compare with a list the company produced last year for the first three months of 2017.
As it did last year, IHS Markit provided a list of new-car registrations issued during the period — meaning the list includes retail sales, consumer leases, fleet sales to rental car agencies and other bulk buyers, and a relatively small number by auto dealers and manufacturers. Sales and leases to consumers make up roughly 80 percent of the list, according to the company, which does not release figures for retail leases and sales only.
Sedans made by Japanese automakers again topped the list — with Toyota’s Corolla remaining in the top spot despite 730 fewer registrations than the same period last year. Meanwhile, Toyota’s Camry, last year’s No. 3 car, moved into the No. 2 spot, supplanting its main rival Honda Accord, which fell to sixth place.
New Accord registrations declined by 1,311, or 36 percent, to 2,306 in the first three months of 2018, while Camry registrations increased by 1,158, or 36 percent, to 4,416.
The same scenario occurred nationwide, but on a smaller scale, as new Camry registrations increased 10.3 percent, while Accord registrations dropped 13.6 percent.
Accord’s declining sales have been the subject of considerable head-scratching in the automotive press over the past few
months, and even led to plans for a temporary production shutdown this summer to allow existing inventory to move.
Ultimately, sales lagged because Honda declined to match incentives and pricing offered for Camry, the Detroit Free Press reported in March.
The paper quoted Autotrader senior analyst Michelle Krebs as saying Camry incentives averaged $2,900 a car in January and February, while the Accord averaged just $1,200.
Honda dropped its prices in April, and sales have picked up nationally, according to the website, thetruthaboutcars.com.
Marc Cannon, chief marketing officer for AutoNation, said customers will come around to the redesigned Accord, which was named North American Car of the Year at January’s Detroit Auto Show.
“Accord is a fabulous vehicle,” he said.
While economical cars are tops in South Florida, three brands of full-sized trucks accounted for the top three spots nationwide: Ford F Series, Chevrolet Silverado and Ram (formerly Dodge) Trucks.
Cannon said cars top sales in South Florida for several reasons, including long commuter times and the lower median wage in the metro area compared with other areas of the country. “South Florida’s economy is much more tourist-based, and there are more workers in the service industry,” he said. “So they tend to look for smaller cars, where fuel efficiency and price points are more important.”
Trucks have long been more popular in more sparsely populated areas of the country, including the Midwest, the Northwest, the Northeast and Texas where fuel efficiency isn’t as important, he said.