J.D. Power reports compact CUVs turn nearly three times faster than in prior year

(January 25, 2010) During the fourth quarter of 2009, compact crossovers (CUVs), including best-sellers Honda CR-V, Ford Escape and Toyota RAV4, remained on retailer lots an average of only 27 days before being sold, which was significantly down from an average retail turn rate* of 74 days in the same quarter of ’08, according to Power Information Network (PIN) retail transaction data from J.D. Power and Associates.

A few more compact CUV demographic and sales highlights:

• The average age of a compact CUV buyer in the October-December ’09 time frame rose to 50. A year earlier, the average compact buyer customer age was 49.

• The percentage of compact CUV buyers in the 56+ age range in the fourth quarter of ’09 rose by 3.7 percentage points to 37.1 percent from 33.4 percent in the fourth quarter of ’08.

• Among the four CUV sub-segments, compact CUVs had the highest percentage of female buyers in both years. Nearly half of compact CUV buyers were female (48.3 percent), which was nearly the same as in the ’08 period (48.6 percent).

• Total compact sales (retail and fleet) for the compact CUV category in the fourth quarter of ’09 rose by one-third on a selling-day adjusted basis to 309,996 units from 240,511 units the same period of ’08, according to the J.D. Power and Associates Sales Report.SM
 
Note 1: The four crossover (CUV) sub-segments include: compact, midsize, compact premium and midsize premium categories.
 *The retail turn rate is the average number of days that a model remains on a dealer lot before selling.
Note 2: If a unit is dealer-traded, the retail turn rate returns to zero at the time of trade.