We're doing something new for this month's By the Numbers – ordering each brand and automaker by the most number of vehicles sold to the least. We used to order everything alphabetically, but figured this way easily surfaced an extra facet of information. On to the numbers.
Not a single brand managed to improve its sales in April versus last year, despite talk in the media about pent-up demand for autos and incentives that remain historically very high. Past hot performers like Subaru, Hyundai and Kia are dressed in red like the rest of them, though they, along with Audi, managed to fare better than most brands.
The biggest mover and shaker in the chart below appears to be the Ford brand, which, while down 29.96%, is grabbing market share from its competitors. It narrowly beat out Chevy and Toyota for the best selling brand in April. Toyota, however, took a punch to the gut with brand sales falling 42.19% and combined sales with Lexus dropping 41.87%. Only Chrysler LLC, down 48.10%, performed worse last month versus April 2008.
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Data for By the Numbers comes directly from the automakers themselves. It is compiled and calculated by Autoblog in the above chart, which displays the volume sales data for the current month and same month last year, the volume change in percent, the average Daily Sales Rate for the current month and same month last year, and the DSR change in percent. All brands and automakers are ordered according to their current month volume sales data, greatest to least.
