Some fun facts on the 2013 Dodge Dart sales for 2012
The 2013 Dodge Dart officially went on sale in June 2012 and in the final 7 months of the 2012 calendar year – Dodge sold 25,303 examples of the sporty new compact sedan. This includes the first month’s sales of 202 units in June 2012 and the best month’s sales of 6,105 units sold in December but going further, the good people at Chrysler were kind enough to provide me with some interesting figures from the first partial year of the new Dart relative to the rest of the segment.
First of all, the 2013 Dodge Dart was available in 4 trim lines during the 2012 calendar year – the SE, SXT, Rallye and Limited. During the first 7 months, the SXT was the top volume model with roughly 39% sold followed by the luxurious Limited package with a rate of 28% while the sporty Rallye package came in third with a rate of 22% and the entry level SE was the lowest volume model with a rate of just around 11%. For the 2013 calendar year, the Chrysler Group expects that the SE will continue with a pace of 10% while the new Dart GT will likely follow a similar pace. The SXT will likely account for about 35% of sales in 2013 while the Limited will bring about 25% of sales and the Rallye will account for an additional 20%. In terms of geographic sales, California dealerships have sold the most Darts followed by Texas, Florida, Michigan and New York.
A big number that automakers look at is the average age of buyers and among the C segment sedans, the Dodge Dart has an average buyer age of 43 years old – 4 years younger than the average of 47 years for the segment. In the segment, the Dart is tied with the Volkswagen Jetta at 43, the Honda Civic is 45 years, the Ford Focus, the Chevy Cruze and the Toyota Corolla are 47 and the Hyundai Elantra is 48 years.
Next, there is a term called “conquest sales” in the industry that indicates that the buyer of a vehicle is coming into the given vehicle after owning a competitors vehicle. The Dart has the highest conquest rate of 55% while the Civic is at 53%,the Focus sits at 52% and the Cruze sits at 45%. This means that 55% of Dart buyers were driving competitors’ vehicles before buying the Dart.
Household income is another big figure for the automakers and the Dodge Dart sits slightly below the segment average of $70,000. On average, Dart buyers have a household
income of $66,000 and that figure ties the Dart with both the Chevrolet Cruze and the Ford Focus. The VW Jetta leads the segment with an average income of $78,000 and the Honda Civic is tied with the Hyundai Elantra at $73,000.
The 2013 Dodge Dart proved to be particularly popular with male buyers as 65% of Dart buyers were guys compared to a segment average of just 53% (Chrysler didn’t provide average ages for the other vehicles in the segment).
24% of new Dodge Dart buyers were college graduates with either bachelor or graduate degrees while the Ford Focus had 25% of their buyers had at least that level of education while the Cruze has 26% of their buyers sporting a college diploma.