1997 Dodge Ram 1500 Sport Standard Cab Pickup 2-door 5.2l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

More than half of Mazdas sold in 2018 are CX-5s, and other interesting sales facts

Last year was a seriously good year for carmakers. Overall, more vehicles were sold than in 2017, and the total number wasn't far off of the all-time record in 2016. Digging deeper into the numbers, you'll find some pretty usual stuff including the Ford F-Series still being the bestselling pickup truck in America, and a continued trend toward crossovers. But there are also some oddball factoids tucked in these sales reports, some that defy the trends, and some that are extremes of the public's buying preferences. We've compiled several interesting tidbits from last year's sales right here for your enjoyment. More than half of Mazda's sales were of CX-5s Yes, over half of all Mazda sales were of this one model. The company sold 300,325 cars in America last year, and 150,622 of them were CX-5 crossovers, or 50.1 percent. Just for emphasis, that means the other 49.8 percent of Mazda's sales were split among five other models, the Miata, 3, 6, CX-3 and CX-9. Breaking that down further, the second-best seller was the Mazda3 at 64,638, which isn't even half of the CX-5's sales. People are crazy for Mazda's middle crossover. Volkswagen actually sold more cars than crossovers It's clear that the crossover is the future king of car sales. For most mainstream brands, it already is. Chevy, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Subaru, Mazda and Nissan all sold more crossovers and SUVs than they did conventional sedans and hatchbacks. There are holdouts, though, and one of them is Volkswagen. At the end of 2018, the company sold 189,343 cars and 164,721 crossovers in the U.S. So that's one win for the classic car set, and it's justification for VW to maintain its car line for the foreseeable future. It's a bit of a hollow victory, though. Look closer and you'll see that car sales were down 28 percent from 2017, when VW sold 262,029 cars. Crossovers, on the other hand, jumped 112 percent from 2017 when 77,647 crossovers moved through U.S. dealers. So expect the tables to turn very soon. Mustang is still the muscle-car sales king, but Challenger is the only one to improve Once again, the Ford Mustang topped the muscle-car sales charts, beating out the Dodge Challenger and Chevy Camaro. Ford moved 75,842 of the ponies in 2018, while Dodge sold 66,716 Challengers for second place, and Chevy sold 50,963 Camaros to bring up the rear.

Bob Bondurant driving school closes a month after entering Chapter 11

On Oct. 2, the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In its filing, the 50-year-old racing school said it owed between 50 and 99 creditors an amount between $1 million and $10 million, and had $1 million to $10 million. The school released a statement at the time saying, "Our plan is to emerge from this process as a stronger company and continue to drive this company into the next 50 years." Instead, on Monday, Nov. 12, the Chandler, Arizona-based facility closed its doors with no official explanation. On top of its classes for aspiring racers, law enforcement authorities, and general population students, Bondurant has been the official driving school for Dodge SRT vehicles since 2015. Over the past two years, Dodge has included a one-day training course for any SRT buyers and lessees, redeemable within a year after finalizing the deal for the vehicle. To read the tale of one Hellcat owner at the Hellcat.org forum, even the school's instructors didn't see the closure coming. Forum member Av62nv arrived at Bondurant Monday to start his four-day experience. After a lengthy pause in the middle of the day, Av62nv wrote that the instructor walked in and told the class, "Sorry guys, don't know how to say this, but as some may know the school is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and it looks like 7 now. We are closed." Another poster in the forum, CubeMan, wrote that "Technicians and staff loaded their toolboxes, and paychecks have apparently bounced." Apparently family scion Jason Bondurant arrived and tried to explain; the short of it was that the good thing had come to an abrupt end, but there was "a chance it could come back." Other posters in the forum noted how they have reservations as far out as June 2019, or haven't been able to get to their classes yet because of delivery delays with their SRT cars, and have no idea what's happening. The website is still up, but a Bondurant spokesman confirmed the closure to Classic Cars, and a note on the school door reads, "School is closed. Direct all inquiries to Pat Bondurant." Pat is Bob Bondurant's wife, who married the former race driver in 2010 at the Monaco Grand Prix. A month ago, Bondurant's Chapter 11 bankruptcy statement said, "We will continue operating and serving our students and corporate groups as usual while we develop new business relationships to ensure the vitality of the company in the future." Obviously, that won't happen.

For his last act, Marchionne will outline an EV/hybrid roadmap this week

MILAN/LONDON — Fiat Chrysler (FCA) boss Sergio Marchionne is expected to outline new plans for electric and hybrid cars in a strategy presentation on Friday, aiming to ensure the world's seventh-largest carmaker remains in the race in the absence of a merger. The 65-year-old will present FCA's strategy to 2022, his final contribution to the company he turned around and multiplied in value through 14 years of canny dealmaking. After failing to secure a tie-up he said was necessary to manage the costs of producing cleaner vehicles, Marchionne needs to show the group can keep churning out profits on its own, even as emissions rules tighten, SUV competition intensifies and worries around his succession abound. Marchionne had long refused to jump on the electrification bandwagon, saying he would only do so if selling battery-powered cars could be done at a profit. He even urged customers not to buy FCA's Fiat 500e, its only battery-powered model, because he was losing money on each sold. But Tesla's success and the need to comply with tougher emissions rules have forced Marchionne to commit to what he calls "most painful" spending. "FCA is way behind rivals in terms of hybrid and electric vehicles and they need to hit the accelerator to convince investors they can close that gap," said Andrea Pastorelli, a fund manager at 8a+ Investimenti. Germany's Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW and U.S. rivals GM and Ford have committed to spending billions of euros each in coming years to try produce profitable cars powered by cleaner fuels. FCA needs to present a clear roadmap, just like Volvo Cars, which ditched diesel from its best-selling XC60 SUV, launched a new electric brand and pledged to shift all brands to hybrid by 2019, a banking source close to FCA said, noting: "The tech divide determines winners and losers in the industry." Marchionne has already said half of the wider FCA fleet will incorporate some elements of electrification by 2022, while luxury marque Maserati will spearhead FCA's electrification drive by making all new models due after 2019 electric. But its plans remain vaguer and less advanced than most big rivals and some investors wonder about the capital required to make vehicles compliant, and what share of spending can go to electrification given FCA's numerous demands.