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The Biggest Winners and Losers in Auto Sales in Q1 2025

Posted by DocPhilMcGraw@reddit | cars | View on Reddit | 39 comments

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DocPhilMcGraw@reddit (OP)

Glad to see sedans taking some wins in sales this quarter.
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The_Exia@reddit

Because they are cheaper generally then the SUVs and in the the current market, cheaper is better. Its why GM is selling a ton of Trax and Envista on the CUV side. A cheap good product will always sell and typically sedans deliver that.
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7eregrine@reddit

And of course dropping the Malibu didn't help.
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PhilosophyMinimum549@reddit

I'm sure they're cooking up a sedan style EV for the future at some point. but I was surprised too.
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DocPhilMcGraw@reddit (OP)

Sure but in Nissan’s case, the Sentra outsold the Kicks for this quarter by over twice the amount (54k Sentras sold versus 25k Kicks). The Kicks is priced within a few hundred bucks of the Sentra and it’s undergone a refresh too.
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Ran4@reddit

That just means more people need two cars though as sedans are so unpractical.
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orhantemerrut@reddit

I like my sedan.
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Juicyjackson@reddit

Man, Audi needs to do something... Absolutely atrocious performance when BMW is selling more and more EV's everyday, while Audi EV sales are all falling.
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Snazzy21@reddit

A lot of people never put Audi on the same level as BMW or Mercedes. But they made a lot of progress with some good designs in the late 2000s, but they failed to update so things got stale. They drove well. They punch above their weight in maintenance costs, they used [plastic coolant pipes in the hot V](https://eeuroparts.com/blog/audi-v6-coolant-transfer-pipe-leak-causes-and-fixes/) below the turbo that cracks and leaks (cuz it's hot), they used DI which carbons up the intake valve which requires walnut blasting. Before if you wanted a luxury car that gave you that experience, you had to get a British car. But now Audi is compromising the luxury part by [lowering interior quality](https://www.motor1.com/news/751377/audi-admits-interior-quality-worse/). Many down market offerings can offer the same level of routine expensive mechanical failures that Audi owners desire, while costing less.
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mdp300@reddit

I like my current Audi, and I was interested in their EVs when they were announced. I actually like them overall, but I hate the captive touch everything that's replacing actual buttons.
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Gregsbouch@reddit

They went to high end with the Etrons. They did discount them to death but still no one wants them.
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007meow@reddit

They’re decent cars, but bad EVs. The refreshed Q8 is significantly better than the OG e-Tron and e-Tron GT/Taycan are basically second gen cars compared to the pre-refresh, making them seem even worse (and nuking their resale values even further) in comparison to
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Staplersarefun@reddit

Who is buying all this GM trash? I'm honestly bewildered that anyone would willingly buy anything outside of Escalade...
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AmNoSuperSand52@reddit

Bruhs pressed because he’s got the electric Audi
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savageotter@reddit

GM makes good vehicles. It isn't 2001 anymore
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dsonger20@reddit

TLDR; **WINNERS:** \- Buick, Chevy and GMC SUV's \- BZ4X and Solterra \- Kia and Hyundai Sedans \- Nissan Sedans \- Japanese Sports Cars **LOSERS:** \- Dodge \- Grand Wagoneer and Wagoneer \- American Sports Cars \- Toyota Crown and Highlander \- Audi EV's
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TomcatZ06@reddit

> BZ4X and Solterra This is the biggest surprise here
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dsonger20@reddit

The lease deals they are offering in Canada and the US are very aggressive. You can lease one for basically for a quarter of what you can lease my car for.
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Big_Size_2519@reddit

There’s gonna be a lot of losers in Q2
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Larcya@reddit

I mean find me a winner in Q2. Becuese the only winners would be brands that don't operate in the US. Banks won't be giving out loans for $90,000 trucks that are worth $60,000. And consumers don't have the cash to buy $90,000 trucks for well cash. So I'm expecting a lot of manufactures to be crunching numbers and seriously considering shutting down production for 3-4 years. Then apply pressure and let people know why they are no longer making cars.
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ShoedJoeJackson@reddit

People are buying sub 80k f150s as commuter vehicles right now. The truck consumer has changed dramatically within the last 10 years and I hate it. Give me a square tin box with a single cab that looks good up high and slammed
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6158675309@reddit

True, but u/Larcya broader point is people can get loans for the $80k truck today. It's not a smart financial move by the buyer but the lender is happy to make the loan. When the price increases due to tariffs lenders aren't going to hand over money to cover the whole loan. A loan that made sense to the lender at $80, no longer makes sense at $90k. Those are just representative numbers The borrower will have to make up the difference, and they cant. Lenders dont have an issue when the truck is $80K. The calculus of rolling in negative equity, default rates, interest rates, residual values work. But, for a $90k truck it wont and it will tank sales. Reality is probably somewhere in the middle. Sales will slow, manufacturers will eat some of the tariff costs and so will consumers. Loans will be harder to get but not impossible. I dont think it will be as drastic as u/Larcya points out but it will be felt by both consumers and manufacturers. I dont think they idle whole plants for 3-4 years but a workfoce reduction seems likely.
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ShoedJoeJackson@reddit

Oh yeah, and there’ll still be financially illiterate people doing whatever/paying whatever for the badge or image.
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shellmiro@reddit

So much WINNING!!!
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Big_Size_2519@reddit

this is so sad. If these tariffs stay in place for 4 years I predict a lot of nameplates we love in the US won't be sold here anymore
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tyfe@reddit

Only thing we’ll be driving at that point is Ladas.
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caterham09@reddit

It'll likely be literally everyone
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goaelephant@reddit

The Q4, Q6 and Q8 failed in Q1.
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V8-Turbo-Hybrid@reddit

Really surprise to see American performance car sales down but Japanese performance car sales up in first season sales.
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willis936@reddit

Notice that CTR and Supra are not on the winner list. Japan + sports car > high sales is the correlation. Low cost + sports car > high sales is the causation. Sounds like US auto makers have the data they need to increase sales.
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tyfe@reddit

Probably due to price too.  Look at the cars. Mustang and C8 vs Miata’s, the 86 twins, and Z.  The expensive Japanese sports car (Supra) fell too.
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bestselfnice@reddit

Less than 5 years ago you could buy a new V8 Camaro brand new for ~$32k. SS 1LEs could be had under $40k. I'm not in the market so I don't know what kind of discounts are being offered, but the cheapest option for a V8 is the Mustang GT, and it stickers at $48k. The Dark Horse, their SS 1LE equivalent, is $66k. Even sticker for sticker the base Ecoboost is within $2k of the first year LT1, and that was a V8 with an available stick, compared to the automatic only 4 cylinder Mustang. I don't understand how anyone is justifying these new Mustang prices for a largely carried over car. They lost their whole value proposition.
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The_Exia@reddit

Not surprising at all, there's only two American sports cars left and they cost to much and/or have saturated the market. The Mustang is a "new" generation but is basically an S550 with a refresh except it weighs more and costs more. The C8 has been out for so long now and was propped up by Covid, sales have to come down at some point. Its been happening for the last 15 months, which is fine. Corvette's have always had discounts and lower sales volume the longer the generation goes on, the C8 is lucky that it got to enjoy 4 years of great sales and little discounts because every other generation was discounted within 6 months to a year.
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Eggith@reddit

I love how all the winners were titled like; "GM SUVs" and "Japanese Sports Cars" But then you get to losers and the first thing you see is just; "Dodge". Not "Dodge Sedans" or "Dodge SUVs" just "Dodge". I kind of cackled a bit when I saw it.
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Apical-Meristem@reddit

GM is selling the heck out of SUVs now. For the financial health of everyone involved, I hope the engines and transmissions withstand the test of time.
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-Banana_Pancakes-@reddit

The Traverse/Acadia/Enclave are getting so much power out of that 2.5T that it does not inspire confidence. The main compliant on these vehicles already is how loud the engine is. Pushing that little engine so hard will not age well long term.
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markeydarkey2@reddit

>Pushing that little engine so hard will not age well long term. The 1.5T in the Accord/CR-V makes similar hp/L and it's fine, I wouldn't be too worried about this 2.5T as it's a downsized variant of the 2.7T L3B which has been reliable so far.
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MaroonIsBestColor@reddit

The transmissions won’t
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gluten_heimer@reddit

This is a weird way to measure sales success — it’s a percentage increase or decrease of a particular model’s sales in Q1 of 2025 without any additional context. It makes no mention of how their segments in general are doing or whether competitors saw similar increases or declines. I’d be curious how different this list is if you look at these models as a percentage of sales within their segments/against their competitors.
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