Is Red-Hot Car Market Cooling? July VW Sales Say A Bit, But Overall Year Not So Much

In a sign that the red-hot new-car market may be beginning its slow down, Volkswagen-branded vehicle sales were off by 5.8 percent in July, declining to 27,091 deliveries. Through the same period last year, VW moved 28,758 vehicles. First Half VW Sales Were Strong.

Volkswagen Year-To-Year Sales Up Nearly 6 Percent

On a year-to-year basis, though, sales advanced to 188,329 vehicles, an increase of 5.9 percent. For the first seven months of 2016, VW-brand sales were 177,772 vehicles.

Deliveries of the Chattanooga-built three-row crossover Atlas continued strongly for the second month in July as VW ramped up its sales effort. Since June 1, when the crossover went on sale, sales are at 5,329 units.

Meantime, the long Tiguan, which officially went on sale July 1, joined Atlas and helped the automaker to hit the seven-month sales mark. At 593 vehicles, the long Tiguan has had an active startup. Since July 1, the long Tiguan and the standard Tiguan have been sold side-by-side with the shorter model assuming the name Tiguan Limited. For July, sales of the Tiguan Limited were 1,484 vehicles. Sales of the long Tiguan, so called because it rides on a platform that is nearly 11 inches longer than the standard model, have impacted overall Tiguan sales. Sales of the mid-sized crossover Touareg were also up at 475 for July up from 308 last year for a 54.2 percent increase. Year-to-date Toureg sales dipped from 2,511 to 2,105 or 16.2 percent.

Golf, Beetle Families Show Year-To-Year Hikes

Other sales leaders included:

• The Golf family (Golf, GTI, Golf R, e-Golf and Golf SportWagen – formerly the Jetta SportWagen) sales were 5,583 vehicles, up from 5,351 last year. For the same period last year, Golf sales were strong, hitting 43,830 vehicles, up from 31,673 last year, a 38.4 percent increase. Leading all Golf sales were deliveries of the Golf SportWagen with 2,103 moved in July versus 1,122 last year; year to date sales were 18,234 up from 6,487 last year or an 181.1 percent hike.
• The Beetle Family (Beetle Beetle Convertible) sales dipped a bit in July from 1,528 to 1,359 in July of this year. It was an 11.8 percent drop. For the year, though, sales were up to 22.6 percent to 10,180 from 8,301.

Total Jetta sales were off for the month and year, 3.5 and 4.6 percent respectively; Passat was off 21.5 percent for the month, while sales were up 2.3 percent for the year to 40.280, and sales of the luxury CC were off for the month and year, 50.8 and 45.0 percent, respectively.

Source: Volkswagen