No Love for Big Autos in 2011 Car Buying Trends

America's highways are seeing new trends but they are not including big cars. The elongated rides have fallen out of favor and smaller, more compact versions, are now making good use of crumbling asphalt. What's in, who's out and what do the numbers reveal?

June Industry Predictions: 12.9 Million Vehicles to be sold in 2011

"Provided that the economy decides to cooperate, the automotive summer slowdown will only be a speed bump," J.D. Power and Associates' Jeff Schuster told Reuters. Even so, optimistic figures of a 13-million vehicle sales year have been downgraded to 12.9 million. Trends favor compact cars but also functional pickup trucks.

July 2011 Car Sales Benchmarks

Will the automotive industry really have a hot sales year? Year-to-date figures factoring in July's trends -- as published by the Wall Street Journal -- show a reason for cautious optimism. Year to date sales of cars sit at 3,737,299, which shows a 10.4 percent increase when compared to 2010 data of the same time period. Some 3,654,868 light-duty trucks have sold (an 11.5 percent spike) and even SUVs are seeing healthy increases. It is reasonable to look at the 12.9 million car sales figure and consider it realistic and perhaps even a bit conservative.

Winners and Losers

The car sales figures for 2011 show some interesting, albeit foreseeable, trends in the buying behavior of the automotive consumer. Large cars are becoming an outmoded choice; July 2011 only saw 6,290 sales of these conveyances, which translates into a 20.2 percent decrease from July of last year. When compared to 2010 year-to-date data, the sales slump in this sector measures a remarkable 6.9 percent drop. The big winner among the cars is the small vehicle, which has a year-to-date increase of 17.4 percent.

The biggest increase in overall sales among vehicles falls into the midsize SUV category. A 49.8 percent increase over 2010 figures show that these conveyances are currying favor with consumers, who have chosen to eschew the large SUV and its gas-guzzling tendencies. Data shows that -- when compared to last year -- large SUVs have lost 7.7 percent in sales, with a 1.8 percent drop in July 2011 alone.

Among individual vehicles, it is interesting to note that the Honda Accord is falling out of favor with consumers. A 15.7 percent drop in year-to-date sales (when compared to 2010) and a 26.9 percent drop in July 2011 are indicators that there is a new favorite in town. Big winners include the Volkswagen Jetta, Chevrolet Equinox, Hyundai Elantra and Ford Escape.

Future Game Changers

Of course, the only true constant in the automotive industry is its penchant for change. It is unclear what the next real game changer might be, although the trend to move plants --and therefore jobs -- to Mexico might influence consumer buying behavior going forward. Reuters outlines that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- as well as Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen and Toyota -- are setting up automotive assembly lines in that country.