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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.

Future Classic: 1999-2005 Lexus IS 300

Japanese automakers often reserve their best stuff for the home market. The number of incredibly cool, quick and exciting cars that were never sold in the United States is enormous. Fortunately, we occasionally get a peek into that world when a special Japanese car lands on our shores. In the late 1990s, we a version of the athletic Toyota Altezza. Known as the Lexus IS 300 here, the car came to America with the legendary 2JZ-GE inline-six (the non-turbo cousin of the fourth-generation Supra engine), rear-wheel drive and an available manual transmission – the perfect formula for an enthusiastÂ’s sedan. Why is the Lexus IS a future classic? Simply put: There are no other modern Japanese sedans that offer the same formula as the early IS. The Lexus IS is still around today, but other than a brief flirtation with V8s in the mid-2000s IS F and the most recent IS 500, the carÂ’s performance potential has gone untapped. After the first two generations, the IS got clunkier and heavier and struggled to compete against the heavy artillery from Germany and elsewhere. First-generation IS models are highly desirable for this reason. The 2JZ engine is famously easy to massage into an absolute powerhouse, and the nimble rear-wheel drive setup makes the car a joy to drive. Lexus didnÂ’t start adding tech like a backup camera and Bluetooth until later in the second generation, so all first-gen cars are as simple as it comes with the IS. Interestingly, that 2JZ engine was specific to the U.S.-market IS. In Japan, the Altezza was also available with a four-cylinder. It was a version of the 3S-GE that made 207 horsepower at a seriously high 7,600 rpm, just shy of the 215 horsepower of the American-market 2JZ. For more intrepid engine swappers, this is another popular choice. Additionally, the car is clean, but muscular with its styling. It was instrumental in popularizing clear tail lights, too, which you may have heard referred to as "Altezza" lights, like its Japanese twin. The interior was particularly sporty-looking in a new-millennium way with its gauge faces styled like high-end chronograph watches and the gleaming spherical chrome shift knob. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. There are safer, quicker and certainly more advanced cars, but the tech and safety equipment can get in the way of the driver-car connection.

Buick, Lexus top J.D. Power survey, as vehicle service improves overall

Buick and Lexus returned to their customary place atop J.D. Power's scorecard of satisfaction with dealership service departments. In the Customer Service Index Study, out Thursday, Buick scored 860 on a 1,000-point scale for mass-market brands and has topped this ranking in three of the past four years. Lexus topped the list of luxury brands with a score of 874. Fiat and Land Rover were the bottom-dwellers in the two categories. Buick and Lexus also ranked highly in the research company's overall Vehicle Dependability Study rankings out recently. The customer experience at car dealerships has improved steadily, with the overall industry score rising in seven of the past eight years. And one statistic is particularly remarkable: 94 percent of customers say their car was fixed right the first time. The dominant area of difficulty in repairs seems to be infotainment systems. Only 80 percent of respondents said their stereo was fixed right the first time. And in last month's Vehicle Dependability Study, J.D. Power reported that infotainment systems were the most commonly reported vehicle issue, accounting for 22 percent of all problems reported, up 2 percent from the previous year. J.D. Power surveyed 70,000 customers for the Customer Service Index Study. For the Vehicle Dependability Study, it surveyed 35,186 first owners of 2014 model-year vehicles after three years of ownership. Below are charts for both the current study and the complementary overall brand dependability survey. Related video: