Car sales overall weren’t as stellar as they’ve been in the United States last year. Yet predictably, the best-sellers were comprised largely of a group of trucks, SUVs and crossovers. No surprises there. The worst-sellers, tragically, were a smattering of fun enthusiast cars, small cars and phased-out models.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone, really. Little fun roadsters were never supposed to bring in the big bucks. Let’s just hope that the carmakers won’t see this as a reason to kill them off altogether. Here are the worst sellers of 2017, with numbers pulled together by the trusty Good Car Bad Car.
10. BMW Z4
BMW sold 502 Z4 roadsters last year. Shockingly low, but also understandable when you consider production ended in 2016 and it’s being phased out for something new soon. Besides, it’s a second or third car, not a primary one.
That new Z4 concept, though? Mmm... and gives me hope that BMW will keep making fun sports cars.
9. BMW i8
BMW sold 488 i8s last year, which admittedly surprised me because I didn’t think anybody was buying that car. The i8 is a fascinating and gorgeous car with an exciting application of hybrid technology. When it launched, it was the toast of the town—for about a minute. Now it feels like everyone else has caught up or surpassed it. For our money, we’re much bigger fans of the faster Acura NSX.
8. Kia K900
I, uh, totally forgot that this car existed and apparently, so did the rest of America. Kia only managed to move 455 K900s in 2017, which is an absurdly low number, even with the sedanapocalypse upon us. Whatever, keep on keepin’ on, Kia!
7. Alfa Romeo 4C
Oh, come ON! Nobody bought this glorious thing? Only 407 of you did? It’s tiny, loud, bad and has no storage space. What’s not to like? Look, everyone, Alfa made us this nice car and we didn’t buy it. We don’t deserve the 4C.
6. Bentley Flying Spur
Sales tracking website Good Car Bad Car didn’t specify which Flying Spur model this was, the V8 or the V12, but it doesn’t really matter, does it? The cars are outrageously expensive and Bentley sold 257. At least that red is nice.
5. Cadillac SRX
I didn’t realize people were still buying the SRX in 2017. It was produced through the 2016 model year and then replaced by the XT5, so I guess these last 156 were the remaining stragglers. Fun fact: even though the SRX was pretty old compared to the rest of the lineup, it was for a time still Cadillac’s top-selling model. That’s the power of the crossover boom.
4. Lincoln MKS
Like the SRX, the MKS was discontinued in 2016 but continued to sell through last year. And 153 of them at that! And again, unsurprising, considering that nobody is buying sedans. Lincoln replaced the MKS with the Continental, which is a sweet ride and will definitely serve as a better limousine for those Chinese business people because they are probably the only ones buying it.
3. Bentley Mulsanne
Another big and expensive Bentley. I’m not interested. Are you? Last year, 98 sold.
2. Ford GT
Hey, look at that! Ford sold 89 GTs last year! Not bad for a car that costs about half a million bucks. The acquisition process for these has been pretty insane, and Ford isn’t exactly making tons and tons of them. Chalk it up more to exclusivity than unpopularity, I guess, but we’d love to see more of these on the road somehow.
1. Hyundai Equus
Selling 20 of these things is kind of impressive by itself, but there are a couple of reasons for this. First, sedan. And second, Hyundai phased out the Equus in 2016 in favor of the Genesis G90.
Will Genesis take off as the luxury brand that Hyundai wants it to be? We have 2018 to find out.