What new cars tanked in 2018 – and why?
Singer Tom Petty reckoned even losers could be winners sometimes. Do new vehicle sales stats support this? Richard Bosselman reports.
The 2018 new car market is in the rear mirror view – and, insofar as overall volume goes, it seemed another steady year, albeit with one trend continuing.
Annual sales data makes clear sports utility, crossover and onetonne utility favouritism was strong enough in 2018 to suggest indifference toward orthodox cars such as sedans is no passing fad.
Yet not all sales duds – aka ‘‘zombie models’’ – were three-box constructs. The vehicles that failed to match their 2017 counts and occasionally slumped to single figure counts hailed from all sectors, including those experiencing uplift.
Also, not every loser was a stinker: enough decent fare was also cold-shouldered to leave the impression that even being awesome wasn’t good enough. So who were the living dead? Today’s exercise provides insight, with one caveat. It only seemed fair to exclude vehicles cancelled for 2018 (so Chrysler 300 and Mitsubishi Lancer, you’re excused), as well as exotica not intended to sell in big numbers.
Though, in respect to the latter, we note that despite many in the upper-class clique calling it a cooling year, only Maserati appears to have felt significant pain. This included the Levante, a curious turn-up given most times SUVs are saviours.
Ferrari, on the other hand, would surely have to be chuffed about shifting 25 488s. That’s enough to create an instant racing class. Here are some of the cars and brands that seem to have been less wanted last year.
Hyundai i20
Impressive improvement in softroader penetration – and, of course, a big effort to get Kiwis into brand-new electric cars – kept the New Zealand representative of Korea’s kingpin busy, yet for every month Kona (1702 for the year), Tucson (1819) and Santa Fe (1566) shone brighter, the wholly road-tuned passenger models commensurately lost lustre.
Every ‘‘i’’ model has been hurt, the Sonata and Elantra too, but most battered was the baby hatchback.
Potentially some fans have abdicated to Kona, but this favourability fall might also be down to rival cars offering more for less. Having found 492 homes in 2017, i20 achieved but 97 likes in 2018.
Subaru Levorg
Spiritual successor. Brand conviction about how the big fan base for the once hugely popular, now defunct Legacy GT wagon were going to migrate to the Levorg isn’t aired any longer, for good reason. They haven’t.
Forty-nine registrations in 2018 – against 104 the year before (and 559 for the like-dimensioned Forester) – suggest that even a refresh that delivered improvement (more frills, a better price) hasn’t helped. On top of this, as a seal-prioritised car, this model probably surprises.
We’re not suggesting Subby road fare doesn’t sell – 100 WRX regos this year against 92 last year says it still does even in specialist form – yet so entrenched is Subaru as an ‘‘off-road’’ brand that it perhaps surprises fans that it still offers a wagon that isn’t truly tailored for muck.
Nissan Juke
Credit where it’s due. This is the car that kicked off the supermini crossover segment. But that was eight years ago . . . and not only has the Juke barely changed much since, but a whole lot of usually better-resolved, equally funky yet more easily accepted rivals have come into play.
With 38 registrations (against 183 in 2017) this pathfinder is running out of puff, or perhaps it’s the distributor clearing the way for a new-gen car said to be entering production this year.
Any large Lexus
Toyota’s premium division has a wide portfolio, but the only bent-L product resonating here are cars expressing beyond-seal intent, which means the close-to-launch UX small model is well timed.
Yet, let’s not forget that Lexus started as a big car brand and has since branched significantly into sports cars.
It can hardly be a good thing when the fat and fatuously fuelhungry LX570 manages to outsell some GS, most RC and all ES and LS variants. Patchy progress with hybrids might also fuel thought that green-minded consumers see more attraction in premium EVs.
Infiniti . . . anything
It was never going to be easy. And, with single-figure results for just about every model, it hasn’t been.
Infiniti has new tech on the boil. That EV-oriented product cannot land soon enough.
Mercedes X-class
New Zealand’s hunger for utes is world leading but one of the most anticipated entries of the past year has yet to hit the spot.
Conceivably, the more Mercedes-ised V6 could gain more ground – indeed, 107 regos in December alone suggests this is so – but with just 313 sold for the whole year, the X shows no sign of troubling its Navara blood brother (3419), let alone the category’s big guns.
Toyota 86
Yes, small performance cars are niche choices (hence why just 60 Mazda MX-5s) and it’s likely true, too, that this Toyo-baru is beyond its production cycle peak.
Yet if the stats are correct in citing just 26 sales this year it’s an insult to a very sweet ride.
Toyota New Zealand has likely shelved 86 aspirations now it has a new toy to play with in the Supra, yet you’d have to think that pricing, provisioning and positioning of the incoming Gazoo-aligned BMW codevelopment will be flavoured by the 86 experience.
Holden Colorado
The heading’s just a hook: Colorado gets a mention for being a success. The sole success.
Seemingly set to rack up about 400 more sales than 2017’s strong showing, it also stands as the only member of the lion pack to better its year-on-year standing.
Commodore, of course, took a hit, but Holden had bigger losers. Look at Barina, down from 918 sales in 2017 to 396.
As much as Holden New Zealand is feeling pain, there’s more happening in Australia, where volume is at an all-time low.
It’s heartbreaking to see such an important and regionally relevant brand hurting so bad.