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Compact Car Sales On The Rise With No GM Options

While crossovers, pickups, and SUVs continue to reign as the most popular automotive segments in the U.S. (and by a considerable margin), small, affordable sedans and hatchbacks are experiencing something of a resurgence. In fact, sales figures for several compact car models are on the rise in 2024, likely driven by a number of different factors. Notably, GM no longer offers any option in the compact sedan or hatchback segments.

Sales for compact car models like the Toyota Corolla are on the rise.

Among the notable sales figures for compact sedans and hatchbacks, the Honda Civic is out front with 129,788 units sold to date this year, reflecting a 38-percent increase. The Toyota Corolla follows closely, up 25 percent with 121,991 units sold. The Nissan Sentra has seen a 55-percent rise in sales, totaling 89,028 units, while the Kia Forte is up 13 percent to 70,474 units. Even sales for the Mitsubishi Mirage have nearly doubled up to 9,862 units.

While these figures are still well below those for utility models (for example, GM has sold 277,842 units of the Chevy Silverado thus far in 2024), they nonetheless challenge the narrative that the compact sedan and hatchback segment is in decline. The resurgence in popularity for these models is likely driven by several factors, including high fuel prices and high vehicle prices, making compact sedans and hatchbacks an appealing alternative.

Unfortunately for GM, this reemerging popularity is a missed opportunity. GM discontinued the Chevy Cruze in 2019, the Chevy Sonic in 2020, the Chevy Spark in 2022, and the Chevy Bolt EV in 2023. Although the Cadillac CT4 sedan is technically a compact car, it is positioned as a luxury vehicle and does not compete in the mainstream compact segment.

As consumer preferences continue to evolve, GM will need to monitor market trends to adapt and meet the needs of a diverse customer base, especially in light of the industry-wide transition to EVs and the pressures it creates.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. I can just imagine what GM product planning amounts to these days. Some MBA looks over the numbers and concludes that GM can make up to $15,000 on each pickup and only $5k on cars, ergo, the company should only offer trucks for sale. Genius at work.

    Reply
    1. Issue that drove the big 3 from cars were they were making zero or negative dollars per car. Chrysler for example spent billions on its last mid size and lost all of it.

      Honda and Toyo stuck with the same models for 40 years and fostered a consistent place in the marketplace for each. The big 3 changes model names like underwear with no coherent brand or marketing strategy and every change was building the base from scratch. The big 3 mismanaged cars for decades making them weak kills when the CUV trend accelerated

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      1. Not everybody likes SUV’s or crossovers or is willing to buy one no matter what.

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      2. No manufacturer make much if any money on compact cars in the US. Mitsubishi Motors has never made money in the US, ever. Just because foreign manufacturers will accept very small or negative margins on smaller vehicles for decades or even a half century doesn’t mean US manufacturers should emulate them. One of the reasons the US economy keeps crushing all other developed country economies (especially Japan’s) is that we don’t do stupid things like sell hundreds of thousands of vehicles at cost or at a loss.

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        1. Bruce: So to hell with buyers who need or can only afford a smaller car as long as the manufacturers can make a lot of money on huge gas hogs. Got it. Sounds like you care more about these manufacturers making billions and paying out enormous salaries to the upper management rather than what a majority of the buyers need and can afford. And that’s not even taking into account the environmental impacts of all these huge gas hogs roaming the roads with 1 or 2 people in them.

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          1. A central tenant of General Motors going back to Alfred P. Sloan and their beginnings was the notion that they’d provide “A Car for Every Purse and Purpose”. This credo served them well and made them the largest company in the world at one time. It allowed buyers to enter the GM family with a humble Chevrolet Vega, for instance, and move up to a more expensive Chevrolet, then to climb the company’s “ladder of brands” moving to a Pontiac or Olds, then perhaps a Buick and eventually ending up with a Cadillac. It wasn’t just marketing theory; it really worked. Once buyers entered the GM fold, they stayed there and as their income and status increased so too did the caliber of GM car they drove.

            Perhaps it’s an outdated concept but one thing is for sure, GM under Barra no longer offers much for younger, less affluent buyers so they are not entering the GM fold at age 18. If GM is losing those buyers to Toyota or Honda, they are not developing a pipeline of future customers for their top-shelf models. Maybe that’s why Buick and Cadillac, traditionally their aspirational brands, have been floundering for years.

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            1. Rocket: You are 100% spot on. I’ve been trying to speak that same truth on here for a long time and normally get boos and snarky remarks. But I’be been in auto sales now for a total of 28 years (not consecutively). I started in 1988 and here I am many years later back in the busienss. Way too many people on here and sadly nearly all the execs at GM and Ford have lost the basic concept of “repeat and referral” business. So those huge numbers of buyers that Ford and GM have given the middle finger to have now gone to Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, MB, BMW and many other brands. And those poeple are referring friends and family to what is now thier brand. Those people get excited and refer their friends and neighbors to their brand. Sadly, that isn’t GM.

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            2. It’s not Toyota and Honda young and less-affluent buyers are going to — the Koreans are eating everyone’s lunch right now. West and East Coasts the amount of Kia and Hyundai cars on the roads has just absolutely exploded. Pretty sure the one getting the most displaced by the Koreans though in these markets is Nissan.

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            3. But at least gm’s average transaction price is up! 🙄

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          2. Thx Cim. Dumbest thing i will read today.

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            1. xzy89c: Who’s comment do you think is dumb?

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        2. The only thing that’s being “crushed” is the former Big Three’s market share.

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        3. Sorry to break your bubble but Toyota makes money with Camry, Corolla… Nissan with the new Sentra!

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    2. That’s literally what it is now. I remember reading an article that the problem nowadays is people in charge even up to the CEO are MBA majors with nothing more than bean counting on their minds. So much so that it can negatively affect their margins (or as I like to say, permanently lose customers to the Koreans and Japanese) so long as they cut costs its all that matters.

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      1. MBA means Master of Business Administration. It’s not a major. Many without MBAs and just a BA that majored in Accounting and Finance are employed in bean counter shops.

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        1. I meant masters. Problem is this site doesn’t let you correct it after putting it in.

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    3. The Chevy Trax starts at $21,945 and Chevy has sold over 90,000 of them in the first 6 months of this year.

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      1. But unlike the Vegas, Chevettes, Sonics, and Cruzes, the Trax is not built in the United States employing American workers.

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      2. Trax is not a car .. not even compact! Sparks were cars

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  2. The Trax kinda cover some ground here.

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    1. It does, but at the same point there are some sales lost because they don’t a traditional compact ‘sedan’. Not alot, but some.
      Our daughter and her fiancee just got a new car last week. His last 2 cars where domestics, a ford Focus and an older impala (by older I mean early 2000’s). They wanted something brand new but under $30,000. He drove the Trax, liked it, but ended up getting a Kia Forte because he just likes the feel of a ‘car’ better.

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      1. Just don’t ever get the leather seats wet in a Korean car. It will smell like a wet dog. They have to do something with all the dog hides they have left after dinner in Korea.

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        1. The lower end Kia models use Syntex instead of leather. So if anything it would smell like wet vinyl.

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      2. I drove a Forte (a locally stationed ZipCar I rented a few times named Paneer). It was a pleasant little car. Smooth running and plenty fuel efficient. I always had the Koreans (Hyundai, Kia, or more recently when I bought my XT5, Genesis) on my shopping list as I had a 96 Accent during my university days as my first experience with a Korean car and it was a phenomenal little car. But it was always some stupid little reason that I didn’t land up going with the Korean brand (2016 Tucson and Sportage had too small cargo area so I went with a Rav4, GV80 was just too expensive and they were marking them up $5k so I went with a premium luxury XT5 which cost nearly the same as a base GV80). I’m sure your daughter and son-in-law will be happy with the little Forte (now called K4).

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      3. Mike: Thanks for giving that excellent point. And that’s just one of the many similar stories. GM and Ford
        F-ed up big time.

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  3. What pulse of the market does gm have it’s fingers on?

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    1. They actually have their finger on the CUV pulse. But they are putting too much stock in that segment at the expense of others.

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    2. They’ve become so lazy that they don’t even ask potential buyers what they want anymore.

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  4. Anyone with half a brain could have seen this coming. The cost of fuel going up and EV’s are tanking because they are over priced garbage that cost more to own. GM should have benchmarked a 2020 Civic and come up with a reliable good looking compact sedan with a hatchback option.

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    1. Many makers have diverted limited development $s and engineering resources away from ICE to EVs. Not just GM. Audi for example totally tanked Q2 sales because it’s ICE lineup is all 6-8 years old and EV sales are still too premature to replace them.

      It is a tap dance at this point. The pivot to EVs is inevitable so every company has to be working toward the trend or face going out of business. But the EV demand is growing but still not robust enough to consume 5 EV models from every OEM on the planet.

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      1. It’s unconscionable that every automaker rushed (in many cases, half-baked) way too many EVs to market without ever asking the buying public if they would want one. It’s called The Lemming Effect and it also applies to many design decisions these days. One does something and all must immediately follow. No independent thinking any more.

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        1. The “lemming effect” as you so put it really didn’t factor in what the consumers wanted…it was mandated by government administrations. And now that those government administrations are being voted out of offices, companies are waking up to the realization that new administrations are likely to change the laws to what the consumers want!

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      2. The pivot to EVs is imploding.

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        1. No Tigger, it’s not and you know it.

          I really have no problem with those who don’t like EV’s. Fine, don’t buy one. But this spreading of fake negative “news” about EV’s and what’s going on needs to stop.

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  5. While a recession hasn’t actually arrived by definition, I can just imagine what will happen when one does. At least they have the Trax and Envista. Ford and Stellantis are really going to be in the soup, with nothing.

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  6. I drive a car. I prefer it over SUV. Over the last 20+ years I have had cars. Starting with several Fieros, then a Honda Civic Hatchback Sport, then Hyundai Elantra GT Hatchback, then to Kia Forte GT. 5 out of the 6 were manuals. I like cars because they handle better, lower center of gravity and great performance for the $$. Yes we have a SUV, my wife drives a Buick Encore AWD. When my lease is up in a year and a half I will be shopping for another performance compact.

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  7. Rather than dumping the Malibu, GM should give it a refresh and rename the 4-dr as Impala and 2-dr as Malibu. GM would retain market segment.

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    1. Despite lower than normal Malibu discounts in the past few years, GM will claim that it loses thousands on each one to justify killing it.

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    2. Instead of producing a small, medium, large car across multiple brands, GM should have gone to producing a single great Chevy model to cover the large compact to mid size price point. Focus on quality and quantity.

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      1. Fatone: That won’t work. GM must have a small (Spark sized) entry level sedan/hatch and then something the size of the Cruze and then the Malibu. Then Buick needs to have the Cruze sized (entry level for Buick), a Malibu sized (Regal??) and a larger sedan/coupe. Then Cadillac needs to have the Regal sized (CT5??) as their entry level, then a larger (CT6) and finally a flagship biggest sedan and coupe.

        That would give people an entry to GM (Chevy smaller cars) and first time buyers something to look at. Then allow them and others to move up the ladder like they used to do many years ago.

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  8. I like sedans better because I like a vehicle with a separate lockable trunk from the interior. If someone unauthorized enters an SUV, they can access the trunk area. That’s not as easy with a vehicle with a separate trunk. Also, SUV’s have more glass than sedans which means they’re hot in the summer and cold in the winter. And sedans typically get better fuel economy than SUV’s and crossovers, plus they’re priced lower. For example, a Toyota Camry sedan is lower priced than the RAV4. At least Toyota and Honda give consumers a choice. The domestic auto makes need to do better. I prefer a domestic nameplate, but if a sedan is not available, I’m forced to buy foreign.

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    1. I agreed with you until my sixty-something body decided that I’m not as flexible as I used to be. All new sedans are swoopy and hard to enter and exit. I’m stuck with my last sedan because of the wacky market but intend to finally switch to a crossover.

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      1. We are seniors and easily fit in our CT4-V. No SUV/CUV or EVs for us. Our next vehicle will be a sedan again.

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  9. I would offer another point of view that GM is already playing in this market with a different format.
    They have the Chevy Trax and Buick Envista . Both are FWD and really just hatchback sedans, The real GM CUVs in this category are the Trailblazer and Encore GX.
    In fact one of the GM engineers talked about the Trax as a Cruze replacement when it was in development. The size is similar and so is the power from the drivetrain.
    We have 4 vehicles in our house and one is a 2011 Cruze LTZ RS that is like brand new. We bought in new in 2011 and it was a dealer order for us. At work we have a new Trax 1RS . The cars are very similar in power , NVH and front passenger comfort , The Trax shines with a much bigger back seat.
    The Trax is Chevys entry in the compact car field, its a hatchback and not a sedan.
    Look how strong Gm is in this segment in sales ! Their biggest issue is capacity to produce enough product.

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    1. Not sure the above comment is accurate. Truck, SUV market share have been to going up since late 90s.

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  10. In about 2008 GM closed 4 American truck plants because ‘people want cars and not trucks.’ GM now imports the blazer from Mexico and some trucks from Mexico and Canada.
    In 2018-19 GM violated agreements with the state of Ohio as well as contact agreements with its employees and shuttered its Lordstown Ohio Cruze plant. No doubt Mary and her snakes will import small cars from China or Mexico in the future.
    Greed over all

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  11. GM put all their eggs in one basket and any fool knows the axiom against doing that.

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  12. It’s coming. SUV’s and large trucks aren’t going away, but the decline with them is already in the works. Jim Farley with Ford talked about this recently and said that things have to change. Vehicles have gotten too large and heavy. On another side, you have the next generations who (mostly) won’t drive what their parents and grand parents drove, which would be SUV’s and trucks. Just like many years ago the parents driving wagons and then vans/mini-vans and their offspring avoided them and went to SUV’s/trucks. And next we will have this newer generation who will want self driving vehicles or smaller and lower priced vehicles. Smaller cars, hatchbacks and mid-sized cars will come back.

    And what will Ford do? They have nothing at this moment. GM should never have dropped the Spark and Cruze. And they sure n heck best not drop the Malibu.

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    1. More millennials are renters. Many millennials are out doorsy to include camping, off roading, off gridding to get shots for their social media. They will have the disposable income to buy a vehicle to support their lifestyle. Ain’t nobody van lifing, off gridding, etc in a Corolla or Civic. Every rich high school boy in the South owns a pickup. Every rich kid girl a Jeep.

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      1. Fatone: I didn’t say “all” or “every one”. I said “mostly”.

        Not only that, but the minority of those you refer to would easily use a small car-based hatch to go camping. You are correct in that many of them wish to be off the grid which means also not spending a ton of money on fuels just to have a vehicle they can use to go off-roading twice a year or less. You are severely underestimating these type of buyers who won’t want to drive what the parents drove.

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        1. The truck losing market share is not going to happen
          Just like when full sized SUVs became too expensive for mass market here comes the CUVs. Notice how every maker has a new version of their mid size truck? If the masses can no longer afford a $70k full size we have a perfectly good $50 k mid sizer to move you into. Smaller will happen due to pricing but it will not be a rotation back into cars

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          1. I will partly agree with you. Trucks will not (most likely) lose market share, but instead the buyers will shift to the Ford Maverick sized or smaller instead of buying these huge gas hogs (or way too expensive huge EV trucks). So the “Truck” market will shift. I see the SUV/CUV market taking the biggest hit in all this. Just like the large trucks to smaller trucks thing, it will also happen with those who still think they need an SUV. The shift will be to smaller and the Trax is a prefect example of that. All these mom’s driving their 1 or 2 kids around in a Chevy Tahoe will hopefully realize that they can do the exact same thing in the Trax or Trailblazer for a lot less.

            But car sales are not dead by any measure. And as this article points out, it’s looking like this segment will be going up.

            Reply
  13. Didn’t need a crystal ball for that one.
    The failure of common sense and strategic marketing at its best.

    Reply
  14. Here GM sits like deer 🦌 in the headlights. Nothing to offer as the Malibu has been deep 6 sixed. Look at Tayota they have doubled down on sedans 2 new large CROWNS that get 32 highway and 29 city. 300 ponies and 400 oft lbs.and are AWD.sucks to be GM and Ford

    Reply
  15. Big 3 can’t make this car in USA due to Union labor costs. If Unions were thinking about the Global market they would have lower tiered wages job to build these cars. After several years can be promoted to higher wage plants. Unions are not capable of thinking like this though. Saturn was the effort years ago to bypass the high labor costs. Mexico and South Korea make crossovers that sell well. I guess they could have tried in China but blowback would be high.
    Bruce is correct about low margins making these cars. Japanese and Korean governments give subsidies so the jobs continue and the smaller cars keep being produced with little to negative margin. We should be thankful as those governments are subsidizing Americans with the low priced cars.

    Reply
    1. The bigger problem was the sales price. GM had to throw thousands on the hood to sell a Chevy Cruze at $15k. Honda could sell Civics at $20k list all day long. It was not humanly possible for GM to build small cars cheap enough in any location to not lose money given the price point to move them. That was why they exited the market before and not sure the same problem would not be present if they reentered the space

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  16. Recession or not… Small people need small cars! The biggest car I had ( I had many .. many ) was a 2015 Versa Note! People don’t always need a big ass SUV! Singles are being pushed out of the small and compact cars market by lack of options… I will buy a used car for my next purchase, I own a 2022 Chevy Spark and I am comfortable in it! When I ride in my father’s 2018 Nissan Rogue at the back it is less comfortable than sitting at the front of my beloved Spark. I thought GM was considering me as a client from 2016 to 2022… I am no GM client now! If I buy new it will be Honda Prelude Hybrid!

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  17. GM is such a joke now. I used to be domestic only and would always looks at whatever options GM had to offer but now their selection is just pitiful. Ford goes and dumps sedans so GM decided to play follow the leader and now we’re stuck with a crap ton of CUVs and SUVs, totally alienating car lovers. I have a 2016 Buick Regal now (r.i.p.) and don’t know if I’d buy another GM product at this rate. Mary Ibarra has done a fine job of destroying the company… I miss the Bob Lutz days!!!

    Reply

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