August of 2008 wasn’t a bad month overall for Nissan and its Infiniti luxury division in North America. Canadians bought 8.3% more Nissans than they did last August and 12% more Infinitis. In the United States, Nissan sales were up 14.2% while Infiniti sales jumped 8%. Have a closer look at those two sets of Numbers either here or here.
One can’t confuse overall sales success for these Japanese brands with truck and SUV success. As one would expect with tightening credit, the lowering value of homes, and the rising price of fuel, people don’t seem to want Japanese SUVs. The situation for Nissan in Canada is very clearly laid out below. All numbers relate to August of 2008 and comparisons are with August of 2007.
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25.7 – percentage sales decline for the Nissan Murano
29.1 – percentage sales decline for the Nissan Titan
34.7 – percentage sales decline for the Nissan Pathfinder
47.7 – percentage sales decline for the Nissan Frontier
54.5 – percentage sales decline for the Nissan Armada
61.9 – percentage sales decline for the Nissan Xterra
69.7 – percentage sales decline for the Infiniti QX56
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Now for the good news. Nissan replaced the X-Trail with the Rogue in the Canadian marketplace for the 2008 model year. 934 Rogues were sold in August. Compare that with the 33 X-Trails that were sold last August. Also, Nissan’s minivan, the Quest, posted increased sales this August, up 23.5%. Infiniti’s two very sporting SUV/Crossovers, the EX and FX, posted decent sales as well. The EX is new to the market and sold 179 units while the FX posted a bump of 23.8%.
As an aside, Nissan sold 71 GT-Rs in Canada in August. That takes the year-to-date total to…. 72.
