Nissan Division U.S. sales dipped by 13 percent to 110,283 in September, with significant declines for such key products as the Altima, Versa and Maxima.
But much of the year-over-year decrease reflects the reduction of fleet activity compared with September 2017. Nissan boosted fleet sales a year ago to replenish coastal markets affected by hurricane and flood damage at the time.
Nissan said September 2018 retail deliveries rose compared with a year ago and that consumer demand remained strong through the month. Both the Titan and Frontier pickups benefited from Nissan's "Truck Month" advertising campaign, which included a stepped-up presence during September college football programming.
Infiniti's U.S. sales dipped only 1.6 percent to 12,536 vehicles in September, with rising crossover and SUV demand offsetting declines on the car side.
Brands: Nissan down 13%, Infiniti off 1.6%.
2018 U.S. market share: 8.7% through Sept. vs. 9.3% through Sept. 2017.
Notable nameplates: Nissan Titan up 57%, Nissan Frontier up 71%, Nissan Maxima down 71%, Nissan Altima down 28%, Nissan Versa down 67%, Infiniti QX50 up 70%, Infiniti Q50 down 38%
Incentives: $4,271 per vehicle, down 4.5% from a year earlier, according to ALG.
Average transaction price: $27,093 for Nissan and Infiniti combined, down 0.9% from a year earlier, according to ALG's forecast.
Quote: "There's a lot of noise in the numbers this month, but what we saw were consumers who are buying cars and trucks. There are some negative indicators out there right now, but they don't seem to be having any real impact on demand," said Billy Hayes, Nissan North America division vice president for Nissan regional operations.
Did you know? Nissan has been orchestrating a sell-down campaign on the 2018 Altima to ensure a successful launch of the redesigned 2019 Altima this fall.
