NASHVILLE -- Nissan’s marketing coup of aligning its Rogue crossover advertising with Hollywood’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story release helped generate more than 40,000 deliveries of the nameplate in December, giving Nissan its best-selling December ever in the U.S.
Nissan Division sold 134,545 cars and trucks in the U.S. for the month, up 8.3 percent from December 2015. The division also posted its best-selling year ever in the U.S., with sales rising 5.5 percent to 1,426,130 for 2016.
Infiniti experienced its all-time best-selling month in December with sales rising 21 percent to 18,198 cars and trucks. For the year, Infiniti sales rose 3.6 percent for a yearly record 138,293.
Combined Nissan and Infiniti sales increased 5.4 percent to 1,564,423 vehicles for 2016 -- also a record for the automaker.
The Rogue sold 40,477 in December, an increase of 53 percent from December 2015. For the full year, the nameplate -- which is being produced in three plants for U.S. dealers -- rose 15 percent to 329,904.
By comparison, Nissan’s traditional volume leader -- the Altima sedan -- declined 16 percent in December to 24,763 sales.
Judy Wheeler, Nissan Division vice president for U.S. sales, said that Nissan is reaching maximum factory capacity for Rogue. But she said the company will announce new plans this month during the Detroit auto show for how Nissan “will grow our business even further in crossovers.”
The company is expected to unveil a new-generation Rogue Select, the lower-end version of the nameplate.
Wheeler said the Star Wars-themed ad pitch “really paid off, especially when you were watching TV and seeing the difference between us and what our competitors were doing.
“We really tied into that campaign, all the way down to dealers having special-edition vehicles.”
Other Nissan nameplates posted significant percentage gains in December.
Sales of the Titan full-size pickup more than quadrupled to 4,396, compared with 1,018 in December 2015. The Armada large SUV increased 114 percent to 2,474 sales in December. Murano midsize crossover sales rose 11 percent to 7,881 for the month, while Maxima large sedan sales increased 11 percent to 5,293.
Infiniti posted increases on both the car and truck sides of the ledger.
The brand’s recently released Q60 compact coupe began reaching dealers in plentiful supply and jumped 251 percent to 1,018 sales for the month. The Q50 compact sedan version of the car sold 5,794 in December, a gain of 24 percent.
The QX50 compact crossover, which is in its final months of availability, chalked up a 39 percent increase in December, to 2,026 sales. Infiniti is expected to unveil the next-generation QX50 this month in Detroit.
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