Yahoo Autos Biggest Winners and Losers in Auto Sales in Q3 2024
The start of autumn is synonymous with falling leaves, pumpkin-spiced lattes from Starbucks, and automakers dropping their third-quarter sales figures. Alright, maybe that last one only applies to us.
The point is, we’re doing the same thing we do every quarter: analyzing the winners and losers in the automotive industry for this latest quarter to let you all know the vehicles and brands that are making the biggest and smallest moves three-fourths of the way into 2024.
Read about other quarterly winners and losers from 2024: Q1 / Q2
Winner: Ford F-150 Lightning
Ford F-150 Lightning sales may make up a fraction of F-series sales, but the electric pickup’s share of sales saw marked growth in Q3 2024. Lightning sales grew 104 percent for the quarter, with Ford moving 7162 units relative to the 3503 units it pushed during the same period a year earlier. Sales for the year are up a cool 86 percent relative to the same three-quarter period a year prior too.
Winner: Honda CR-V Hybrid
The Honda CR-V continues to prove fruitful to the automaker’s bottom line, with Honda moving 29,217 units in the first three quarters of 2024—a modest 13.7 percent improvement for the year. More impressive is the fact the gasoline-electric CR-V Hybrid accounted for 54 percent of those sales. The people want hybrids and SUVs, and the 10Best-winning CR-V Hybrid just so happens to cover both bases.
Winner: Chevrolet Trax
The latest Chevy Trax isn’t just a 10Best winner, it’s a sales winner too. Through Q3 2024, the Trax is Chevy’s second bestselling vehicle, its 149,762 sales marking a 129.5 percent improvement relative to this time last year. The bestselling Chevy through the third quarter? The Silverado truck line.
Winner: Nissan Leaf
Success is relative. While the 4514 Leafs that Nissan moved in Q3 2024 may not seem especially noteworthy, it is when you consider the company sold just 1570 in the same quarter a year earlier. That’s a 187.5 percent increase. Though Nissan doesn’t say what exactly is driving sales of the Leaf, we have a feeling it has something to do with certain geographically targeted lease deals. We hear consumers in some western states can snag a Leaf lease that effectively comes out to less than $100 per month. The Leaf’s not exactly our favorite electric vehicle, but a monthly payment like that is tough to pass up.
Winner: Mitsubishi Mirage
Sales of the subcompact Mitsubishi Mirage have more than doubled through Q3 2024 relative to the same period in 2023. With 20,024 units sold so far, the three-cylinder Mirage currently holds the title of second bestselling Mitsubishi model, with only the Nissan-derived Outlander bettering it. Given its relative popularity, the Mirage is surely receiving some upgrades for 2025, right? Wrong. Instead of riding this sales wave, Mitsubishi is jumping ship and discontinuing the Mirage for the 2025 model year.
Loser: Ram
Ram sales are down 24 percent on the year through Q3 of 2024. The brand moved just 268,666 pickups this year, a 19 percent decrease from this time last year. While full-size truck sales aren’t exactly flourishing for Ram’s domestic competitors, Chevy, Ford, and GMC all are reporting at least a slight increase in sales of their respective Silverado, F-series, and Sierra lines of pickups thus far into 2023.
Loser: Acura TLX
As a whole, Acura sales are down 12.1 percent so far this year. Not good. But arguably the largest albatross around the luxury brand’s neck is the TLX sedan, which is hemorrhaging sales. Acura moved just 5951 TLXs through Q3 2024, a marked 56.5 percent decrease relative to the same period last year.
Loser: Mini
Mini’s sales are living up to its name, with the entire brand’s sales down 22.9 percent on the year. Just 17,552 Minis found homes through Q3, a figure that falls 292 units short of the number of aging XT5s that Cadillac sold during the same period.
Loser: Toyota Highlander
Toyota had a middling Q3. Fortunately for the automaker, its strong Q1 and Q2 sales have largely kept the Japanese brand’s overall numbers throughout the year in the black. But that’s not the case for the Highlander, a model that’s seen its sales slip 44.1 percent through Q3. It’s likely the Grand Highlander’s presence can take the blame for some of this, as the larger three-row SUV is surely cannibalizing sales from its smaller stablemate. Or maybe that’s not the case because Highlander sales continued to tumble in Q3. This is despite a recall-related stop sale of the Grand Highlander through this period. Highlander? More like “Lowlander,” are we right?
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