Toyota Up, Nissan Down in August

Toyota pulls out a three-peat, as it posts its third straight monthly gain with August’s 2.8% daily-selling-rate increase.

A 7.3% rise at the Toyota brand offset a 4.1% decline at Lexus. WardsAuto separates Scion deliveries, showing just eight of the defunct brand’s models were sold in August.

There were 27 selling days in August 2017 vs. 26 year-ago.

“Though demand softened in the last part of the month, August was still a good month for the industry. We continue to set records in light trucks, with RAV4 having its second consecutive month over 40,000,” Jack Hollis, group vice president-Toyota Div., says in a statement.

Toyota sold 43,265 RAV4s in the U.S. in August, a 25.6% DSR gain and an all-time-best monthly tally, exceeding July’s 41,804.

Some 5,128 of the 43,265 were RAV4 Hybrids, up 0.4% from August 2016’s 4,919. Through August, 30,593 RAV4 Hybrids have been sold in the U.S., a 5.9% hike from like-2016 and making it Toyota’s No.2-selling hybrid after the Prius sedan (45,189).

The Prius’ three variants (sedan, V wagon, C compact) lost 40.3%-43.7% of their year-ago volume in August, one of Toyota’s sharpest-declining nameplates in the month.

An exception was the nearly year-old Prius Prime plug-in hybrid, which tallied 1,820 sales in August and stands at 13,157 for the year.

Overall Toyota car sales declined 9.6%, with the Camry, Corolla iM hatchback and Yaris as the lone gainers.

The new Camry is driving that model’s sales upward and should contribute even more to Camry sales in September as today the automaker launches the midsize sedan’s marketing campaign, Hollis says.

Camry sales rose 8.6% on a DSR basis last month, however its 37,051 units trailed the RAV4’s total.

While Toyota saw a 16.5% light-truck rise based on DSR in August, its body-on-frame SUVs and Tundra pickup were down or flat.

The Highlander large CUV (21.3%), Tacoma midsize pickup (9.0%) and Sienna minivan (1.6%) all posted August increases.

Toyota sold 2,901 units of the new C-HR small CUV, bringing its 2017 total to 11,843.

At Lexus, a continuing slide in car sales offset a climb on the light-truck side.

Lexus cars fell 17.3% as only the ES sedan, up 5.6%, gained on year-ago. The CT 200h was the biggest loser, down 76.0% from August 2016.

Lexus retailed 291 of the new LC coupe, for a to-date tally of 1,449.

Lexus light trucks gained 5.3% on a DSR basis. While Toyota says the NX compact CUV had a best-ever August with 5,517 units sold, on an adjusted basis the vehicle fell 1.7% from year-ago.

The relatively low-volume GX SUV was the biggest climber among Lexus light trucks, up 28.9% from August 2016.

Through August, Toyota U.S. sales are down 1.2% on a volume basis to 1.605 million units, with an 8.0% decline at the Toyota brand and a 3.4% gain at Lexus.

Toyota says it expects the year’s second half to be stronger than the first, with the fall traditionally a higher-volume season.

Nissan Loses Ground

Nissan experiences its first monthly loss since May and its biggest monthly loss since August 2010, as sales of key CUV models declined.

Nissan fell 16.3% on a DSR basis in August to 108,326 deliveries. Nissan brand DSR fell 17.9% while Infiniti rose 1.3% on an adjusted basis.

Losses were seen on the car and light-truck sides, with roughly half of Nissan-brand nameplates falling below year-ago.

The Altima midsize sedan was down 28.0%, the Frontier midsize pickup 53.2% and the Murano midsize CUV 37.0%.

A rare monthly loss, of 12.9%, was experienced by Nissan’s Rogue compact CUV. A Nissan spokesman says increased marketing activity and higher incentives by the segment’s competitive set affected the model last month. Sales should improve going forward, as Nissan will begin an advertising campaign for the new Rogue Sport this month, as well as mount other campaigns around the college football season kicking off this weekend.

Still, Rogue’s 29,844 total for August kept it Nissan’s best-selling model by far, selling nearly double the Sentra’s 15,285.

The Sentra compact sedan was a rare bright spot for Nissan last month, rising 3.2% on a DSR basis.

The new Titan fullsize pickup truck continues to gain on its predecessor, up triple digits from August 2016 with 3,521 sales.

Nissan touts the Armada fullsize SUV and NV200 small van had record August sales, of 4,454 and 1,615, respectively.

The Leaf EV, whose refreshed ’18 model will be revealed on Tuesday, rose 4.2% on a DSR basis in August to 1,154.

Infiniti saw gains with the majority of its models last month. Especially strong was the next-generation Q60 coupe, up 293.2% to 690, and the Q70 midsize CUV, up 54.5% to 454.

Some 806 units of the all-new QX30 small CUV were sold in August, up from 74 a year-ago.

The Q50 and Q70 sedans, as well as the QX80 large SUV, fell below year-ago.

Nissan’s U.S. sales are flat year-to-date, up just 0.1% to 1.056 million. Infiniti sales are up 18.3% while Nissan’s are down 1.5%.

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