Some Cars Still Sell: The Few; The Loud; The Tiny

In an otherwise disastrous month for U.S. auto sales, only five brands out of 43 showed higher sales in October than the year-ago month: Audi, Ferrari, Mini, Rolls-Royce and Smart.

Audi is engaged in its biggest, boldest and most iconoclastic advertising and marketing push ever, which started this year with ads during this year’s Super Bowl, the mother of all big-splash advertising. Audi is trying to knock BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus off their pedestals. U.S. sales for the Audi brand were up a thin 0.3 percent for the month to 7,443, according to AutoData Corp.

Year to date, Audi sales were down 3.5 percent, to 73,260. That’s less of a drop than those three chief rivals – especially Lexus, which was down 18.3 percent year to date, to 220,502.

Ferrari’s U.S. sales were up 44 percent in October to 108 units. With such small numbers, a single month can mean outsized percent changes. Year-to-date sales through October are probably a better indication, and those sales were down 2.6 percent to 1,342. That’s still far better than the mass market is doing.

Rolls-Royce sales were also up 75.9 percent in October, to 51 cars, according to an AutoData estimate. Year to date, Rolls-Royce’s U.S. sales were up  32.4 percent, to 339. Rolls and Ferrari both say they purposely build fewer cars than they could sell, so the scarcity keeps them attractive to their kind of buyers.

U.S. sales for BMW’s Mini brand were up a big 56.4 percent in October to 5,272. After 10 months, 2008 sales were up 30.2 percent to 45,966. The tiny Mini Cooper and a couple of new, bigger and more functional variants are riding fuel efficiency to bigger sales. (BMW owns both Mini and Rolls-Royce.)

The smallest vehicle of all, the Smart car, accounted for sales of 2,236 in October. Year to date, Smart sales were 20,392. U.S. sales began in February 2008. In a recent presentation, Roger Penske, chairman of Penske Automotive Group, said his biggest problem with the Smart brand right now is trying to get more cars. Penske has the U.S. franchise for Smart.

Other brands wish they had Smart’s problem. Overall, U.S. sales for the month were down 31.9 percent to 838,156. Year to date, U.S. sales were down 14.6 percent to about 11.6 million.

Considering how well Smart and Mini are doing, you would think Toyota’s Scion brand would be doing well, too, with its small-car lineup. But Scion sales were down almost 40 percent in October, and down 6.4 percent year to date. Meanwhile, the Toyota Yaris, which arguably fits the Scion image, seems to be doing what Scion is supposed to be doing, only it’s a Toyota.

Scion is designed to appeal to younger buyers, but parent Toyota’s demographics are older, and different Scion models attract different buyers. Toyota has a well-earned reputation in the auto industry for learning from its mistakes, and Scion is looking like a mistake, at least as it stands today. It will be interesting to see what eventually happens with Scion.