Chrysler still dominates minivans
Chrysler still dominates the minivan market, despite the discontinued Dodge Caravan posting a 93% sales drop—from 24,931 to 1,709. Most of those lost buyers probably did not move up to the Pacifica, which went up from 24,525 to 34,342, a 40% gain.
The Honda Odyssey posted a 22% gain, moving up to 20,066. The Toyota Sienna, which is now an all-hybrid more than doubled in sales, hitting 26,578. That would have beaten the Caravan or Pacifica before, but is now good for just #2.
What about the Kia Sedona, replaced by the fairly impressive new Carnival? It was barely worth looking up the sales: down from 3,608 to just 2,550. It’s the slowest-selling mass-market Kia by far; only the K900 and Cadenza had lower sales. Even the electric Kia Niro managed 4,311 sales. The lighter side, for Kia, is that the Sedona still managed to quadruple Fiat USA sales for the quarter.
Clark Westfield grew up fixing up and driving past-their-prime American cars, including various GM and Mopar V8s. He has ghostwritten auto news for the last few years, and lives in Farmingdale, New York.
