Last year, Toyota saw sales rise by 10 percent.
Last year, the only model that Toyota sold was the FJ Cruiser. This is a surprising sale, as the FJ vanished from Toyota’s US lineup after 2014. It took dealers some time to get rid of their inventory. Toyota released 2021 sales figures. The company had a good year, despite everything.
Toyota sold just over 2,000,000 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 10.3 percent from 2020. Lexus saw its luxury division sell 10.7 percent more cars in 2021 than 2020, with a total of 304,476, a jump of 10.3 percent. It was enough to dethrone General Motors America’s number one automaker. The strong sales year was marred by a disappointing December sales report, with both down more than 30 percent.
Toyota was spared by the chip shortage that shocked the entire auto industry for the majority of the year. The company felt the pinch in late August and had to stop some production. Other automakers faced similar problems earlier in the year.
Last year’s FJ Cruiser was the latest example of defunct vehicles selling long after their production ends. Motor1 reported last ye that Lexus sold three new LFA supercars for 2019 even though Lexus had made all 500 of them by 2012. The supercar did not sell as well as Lexus had expected.
Other automakers have also had zombie sales including the Dodge Viper and Jeep Patriot as well as the Chrysler 200, among others. We hope every FJ Cruiser left on dealer lots this year will have a new home, considering the lack of new cars. As automakers release year-end sales figures, we’ll be keeping an eye out for any other zombie cars.