Marketing and selling new cars may pose risks to automakers. New entry into the automotive market requires time and money to design, market, and manufacture it. If the new model succeeds, this may be a coup for the car company-establishing a new popular brand can bring years of return.
In the United States, most of the best-selling models sell more than 100,000 units per year. The Mazda CX-5 was first launched in the United States in 2012, and sales in the United States exceeded 150,000 in 2018, and this year will be close to that number. But brand new car models often fail-either because of poor reviews or market changes-and they usually stop production after a few years.
As the decade is coming to an end, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed some of the models launched in the 2010s that failed to gain appeal in the American car market. Using historical car sales data from the car sales data website goodcarbadcar.net, 24/7 Wall St. identified the worst-selling new car in a decade.
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The total sales of the vehicles on this list in the United States during the past ten years have not exceeded 50,000. Even if they have been sold for at least two years, most of them have failed to exceed 10,000 in a year. Some of these brands are still on sale today, while others have been discontinued.
These cars are sold by various manufacturers and multiple brands. Some are outliers of other relatively highly successful brands. On the other hand, there are several Fiat and Infiniti brands on this list, which have been struggling as a whole in recent years.
As sales of new models of cars are disappointing, manufacturers usually offer discounts to try to divert excess inventory. Over the years, many of the cars on this list have become cheaper.
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Using historical car sales data from the car sales data website goodcarbadcar.net, 24/7 Wall St. identified the worst-selling new car in a decade. We only considered models sold for the first time in 2010 or later, and have completed sales for at least two years. If the model was sold before 2010, it would need to be discontinued on the market for at least one year before it can be relaunched this decade.
This list is not necessarily a complete list of all the best-selling models in the United States, because luxury models usually have lower sales, so models with a suggested retail price of more than $100,000 are also excluded. For many cars on this list, the sales year range ends in 2019. This does not necessarily mean that the car will no longer be sold in 2020, but only that 2019 is the most recent sales record year for this model.
These data are the latest data as of December 2, 2019, which means that the sales data of these vehicles in 2019 is not complete unless they have been removed. Manufacturers release sales data monthly or quarterly. All sales data are reported by goodcarbadcar.net.
24/7 Wall Street is a content partner for USA Today, providing financial news and commentary. Its content is independent of USA Today.