The greatest losers on the German car market in 2009

[Kowalski]

I saw this list on the finalgear and I would like to share with you lot.

was a strange year for car sales. Some brands made record sales, thanks to the German "cash for clunkers" program, others failed greatly. 3.9 million new cars were registered in Germany in the first 11 months of 2009.

Here are the 10 greatest failures of 2009:


Kia Opirus - only 12 were sold. The ugliness might have played a role.


Cadillac BLS - 28 sold of the camouflaged Vectra/Saab clone.


Cadillac CTS - it may be good but only 32 buyers could be convinced to put their money on the table for one.


Subaru Tribeca - 37 sold. Probably give-aways for family members of Subaru dealers.


Ssangyong Actyon - I suppose this one deserves being bought by only 43 people.


Same is for the Ssangyong Rexton: 46 daft people deserve this car.


And another Ssangyong, the Kyron. Talking about Chinese invasion. The 56 sold models surely don't look like a threat.


Lexus LS. The Toyota flagship was only sold 57 times in Germany. Crisis, what crisis?


Nissan Navara. Listen, Nissan, if Germans want a pickup truck, they want an American one. Thus only 60 sold.


Cadillac Escalade. 61 pimps and drug dealers bought one. Crime rate must be down a lot in Germany.

Source: http://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/0,1518,669531,00.html

The good news is when the fools who bought these cars get bored of the flops they bought, they will be faced with a dizzying depreciation and this mean you will be able to buy one of these cars for very little money.

The other good news, is that because the demand for these cars is very low, the dealers know that the only way to get these cars shifted is to sell it for less than an equivalent European (German really) or Japanese rival and that means you should be able to negotiate a very generous discount on the price.

 

[cawimmer430]

Crime is low here. The sales of the Escalade prove that.

 

[klier]

57 Lexus LS sold in Germany (80+ million people there, one of the richest countries in the world) in 2009.....?!?!?!


....LMFAO

BMW will sell more M3 GTS in 2010

 

[ree]

Just 12 Opirus?! Holy cow - and I saw one of these facelifted models in July this year!!

 

[LaArtist]

Shait some brands should just give up..

 

[cawimmer430]

I saw a new Tribeca in Mühldorf last week. Had I known it was one of only 37 sold in all of Germany I would have snapped a photo of this exotic!

 

[Centurion]

Crime is low here. The sales of the Escalade prove that.

Wrong. New money drug dealers drive used pre-facelifted Cayenne Turbo's -- they are pretty affordable these days Wealthy drug dealers are in the X6 these days.

Some of the numbers are really laughable, especially the Lexus LS figures. It's not surprising nontheless. Having lived in three different countries I've learnt that people are very patriotic about their cars. For example here in England, the flying spur outsold the 7-Series last year, and Land Rover sold more cars than Mitsubishi.

As far as American car goes, it's understandable why the Euro customers are not fond of them. Reputation is poor, spare parts are hard to find, resale value is worryingly low but most importantly there are some great alternatives out there.

 

[ateekt]

4 Korean autos in the list proves that, this industry is a fail. Besides being super-ugly, those cars are terrible to drive/ride!

Also, 3 Caddies in the list is a bit strange! Germans loves their own brands & that's very wise & good thing!

 

[cawimmer430]

Wrong. New money drug dealers drive used pre-facelifted Cayenne Turbo's -- they are pretty affordable these days Wealthy drug dealers are in the X6 these days.

Or - wishing not to turn heads, they drive Corolla's too.

 

[ZicZachZo]

I'm not at all surprised to see some of the cars on the list because they're ugly as hell. But the LS and the Caddy are kind of alarming. With so little sold, how is it even a good business case for either brand to even sell in Germany?

 

[cawimmer430]

I'm not at all surprised to see some of the cars on the list because they're ugly as hell. But the LS and the Caddy are kind of alarming. With so little sold, how is it even a good business case for either brand to even sell in Germany?

Cadillac has never been a big player here. They "survive" on extreme meager sales. Does GM make any profit from their presence here? I have no clue.

Lexus sells virtually all of their cars in the UK and Russia and their press releases then glamorize this as "Europe".