Chevrolet has sold a fair number of Impala and Sonic models since January 1 of this year. Sound like simple, mundane non-news, until you remember that the two models have been out of production since... March and October 2020, respectively.
The release of General Motors' first quarter sales results revealed that hundreds of each model continue to be sold in the U.S. And, of course, discontinued or not, models will continue to show up in the statistics if units are sold. This is not unusual in that a few versions may be lying around. However, the numbers were somewhat high.
In the first three months of 2020, Chevrolet sold 462 Impalas. Even more Chevrolet Sonics – 1,065 – found buyers. Much of the difference is explained by the fact the Sonic continued to be produced until later in 2020, so it’s to be expected there are more of them on dealer lots.
We also shouldn’t expect to see the two dead Chevys disappear from the carmaker’s sales chart either. Models are sitting at dealerships here and there. This is not at all an unprecedented phenomenon in the industry, by the way. To give one extreme example, last year Dodge sold seven Dart sedans. Production of that model ended in September... of 2016. Sales of the compact car obviously declined year over year form that point on as buyers cleared out Dodge dealer inventory, but there are still a few kicking around. Even the Viper, which went out of production in August 2017, shows up in the sale figures with five units delivered in 2020.
