January 4, 2002 - Another year in the books for the Nassau Motor Company. 2001 saw us complete our most recent cycle of new product launches as the new Nevada pickup, Nevada Sport pickup/SUV, and Provo XL officially went on sale. Let’s take a look back at 2001.
Our reputation took a big hit this year and we’re still trying to determine why. We’ve got the engine issues suffered by the early Accolade models under control now, so we’re examining the rest of our lineup for reliability issues. Prestige rose slightly and we brought in $1.9 billion in profit this year.
Numbers were down again this year as we saw sales steadily fall each month of 2001.
The economy is partly to blame. Just as we have a portfolio of all new products, the economy has begun to collapse. We’re hoping things turn around. If not, we may have to make adjustments to our future product plans.
During 2001, Nassau sold 927,777 vehicles, down 23k from the previous year. In fact, other than an uptick in 1998, we’ve seen sales fall each year since our best year in 1996.
611,216 - Gasmea (+1%) - Top Seller: Overland S
240,083 - Fruinia (-6%) - Top Seller: Tango R
76,478 - Archana (-15%) - Top Seller: Tango S
Seeing sales actually rise in Gasmea is encouraging. Since the mid 1970s, we’ve specifically targeted our product for the Gasmean market. During the 1990s we found a good balance, but we may have gone too far now, as sales in Fruinia were down again and our Archanan sales have collapsed.
Sales of the Nifty S subcompact fell this year, down to 103,403 units. Our smallest car hasn’t been as successful in Archana as we expected.
Our compact Tango lineup actually saw sales growth this year. Overall, we sold 300,417 units.
The Tango S sedan saw sales rise to 95,909 vehicles.
The Tango R wagon continues to be the volume leader of the group. This year, sales rose to 177,701 units.
Even the Tango XF coupe got in on the action. The coupe, somewhat maligned for not being as good as its predecessor sold 26,807 units this year.
After a less than stellar debut, the 2nd generation Hornet sport compacts saw sales rise this year. They’re not quite to the level of the 1st generation, but we did see a significant increase. We sold a total of 62,177.
The Hornet S sold 22,045 units.
The Hornet XF saw sales rise to 40,132.
Our new Accolade continues to struggle a bit in the marketplace. Perhaps dropping the base sedan was not the correct move. Sales did improve, as we moved 93,052 units.
The Accolade Estate saw sales rise to 26,945, still well below the previous generation.
Sales of the Accolade Sport which is the model we’re focusing on right now fell slightly to 46,124 units.
The new Accolade Elite is struggling to gain a foothold with the economy the way it is. Sales increased over last year, but are still far below expectations. We sold 19,983.
Our sports car offering, the Stria, is in a free fall. This year, sales were nearly halved as we sold just 3,193.
The Stria S coupe sold just 582 units. We have decided that 2001 will be the final year for the car and will only be producing the convertible moving forward.
The Stria C convertible sold 2,611 units. Now outclassed by the competition, our sports car may not be long for this world.
We did have great success this year with our new NT150 trucks. Across the 3 model lines, we sold 109,446 units. This is up from last year and nearly on par with the best years of the first generation from 1997-1999.
The new Nevada pickup sold 37,033 units. This was the best year ever for a Nassau pickup.
Our new Nevada Sport pickup/SUV hybrid had a very good first year, selling 38,776 units.
The newly redesigned Provo XL had a significant sales drop from the first generation. With a higher price tag and a lower end option for SUVs now in our portfolio, this was expected. A faltering economy didn’t help either. We sold 33,637.
We did see a significant drop in sales of our Overland minivans. Perhaps customers are beginning to move to SUVs as their family vehicles. This year we sold 256,089 units.
The Overland S saw an increase in sales, up to 135,239.
Our higher trimmed models did not fare as well. The larger Overland XL sold just 75,055 units.
The story was the same for our all wheel drive Overland XL AWD. Sales fell to 45,795 units for 2001.
Sales Breakdown
177,701 - Tango R (+9%)
135,239 - Overland S (+10%)
103,403 - Nifty S (-4%)
95,909 - Tango S (+1%)
75,055 - Overland XL (-36%)
46,124 - Accolade Sport (-6%)
45,795 - Overland XL AWD (-51%)
40,132 - Hornet XF (+19%)
38,776 - Nevada Sport (NEW)
37,033 - Nevada (+37%)
33,637 - Provo XL (-37%)
26,945 - Accolade Estate (+25%)
26,807 - Tango XF (+4%)
22,045 - Hornet S (+12%)
19,983 - Accolade Elite (+20%)
2,611 - Stria C (-52%)
582 - Stria S (-4%)