It’s hard to believe we’re past the third quarter of 2022. That means a lot of automaker sales statistics are flooding our inboxes, and a number of Toyotas have caught our eye. Appropriate zero The bZ4X went on sale in September, but that wasn’t due to a lack of interest from buyers for Toyota’s first fully electric vehicle.
In June, we reported on the recall issued by Toyota for the bZ4X. Something causes the lug nuts to loosen, potentially causing the wheels to come loose. Toyota said that about 260 vehicles were involved in the recall, which corresponds to the total number of bZ4Xs sold so far this year. At the time of the recall, Toyota said an investigation was underway to determine the drug and advised owners not to drive these vehicles. That medicine is permanent under investigation, hence no sales of the new bZ4X. This issue also affected the Subaru Solterra, but no Solterras were shipped prior to the recall.
Toyota also recorded nine Sequoia deliveries for September, although that also did not reflect customer demand. The all-new Sequoia debuted earlier in the year to replace the older model, but production didn’t start until mid-September. The posted sales figures represent the dwindling stock of previous-generation models, and with bones dating back to 2008, we don’t blame buyers for sticking around until the new SUV reaches dealers.
Despite these two defects, Toyota finished September by more than 17 percent. Surprisingly, the strong performance of the Corolla and Camry was a factor in the increase. Sales of the Corolla are up 32 percent for the month and the Camry’s are up 45.8 percent, suggesting that the market for compact cars and sedans is still there. Meanwhile, SUV sales were mostly down, except for the RAV4 which recorded a strong 50.8 percent increase. Toyota truck sales also increased; 18.7 percent for Tacoma and 11.2 percent for Tundra. However, that’s still only a fraction of the sales of pickups from the Detroit automaker.
September was a positive month for the Japanese automaker, but overall sales this year at Toyota fell 15.4 percent.
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