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Cars intended for upper-crust buyers are bucking an overall economic trend that has the mainstream American media talking about a double-dip recession. It’s not just media hype. September marked the end of a quarter that saw stocks tumble like it was 2008.
Don’t take that as a suggestion that mainstream buyers aren’t buying mainstream cars. In general terms, higher-priced mainstream-badged cars — we’ll call them middle-class vehicles — aren’t demonstrating an ability to fight their way above 2010’s lackluster sales.
Two examples prove the point. Nissan just threw down the gauntlet with America’s least expensive car, the proletarian new Versa, with a starting price under $11,000. Instantly, Versa sales shot through the roof, rising 68% compared with September 2010. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the $78,750 Audi A8 — a car that isn’t exactly priced right for double-dip recessions — saw a 395% increase. Through the first three quarters of 2011, A8 sales are up 542%.
Although some other Audis posted higher sales volume in September compared with a year ago, the brand’s least expensive model — the A3 hatchback, one of those middle-class vehicles — saw its sales fall 18%. Back at Nissan, the company’s premium-but-value-oriented Infiniti division was up just 2% in September in a market that grew 10%.
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