It’s the start of yet another month, meaning it’s also the start of yet another sales-reporting cycle for automakers that still report monthly. (We’re looking at you, GM.) Hyundai Motor Americapublished its November numbers on Monday, reporting that it sold a solid negative one Azera sedans in the U.S. last month.
Sales reports are usually unsurprising when compared to current trends, like the fact that crossovers are thriving while sedans flatline. Discontinued cars like the Hyundai Azera tend to stay on sales reports awhile after they’ve gotten the axe from the lineup, since automakers still need to report when the “new” vehicles sitting on the lot get sold. Mitsubishi reported selling zero dead Lancers last month, for example, and there’s still a 2015 Lancer Evolution Final Editionlisted for sale as new at a Brooklyn, New York dealership.
What was odd, though, was the fact that Hyundai reported a negative figure for the Azera. Sure, it’s old, discontinued and sales are slow because of that, but negative seems a little harsh. Did someone return a car? Was it the correction of a past reporting error? Was Hyundai just trying to let us know that, look, the Azera is dead-dead and you really need to go check out Genesis if you like luxury sedans, OK?
We just had to ask.
A spokesperson from Hyundai’s U.S. arm told Jalopnik that, yes, our most boring and logical assumption was correct: Hyundai reported negative one Azera sales last month in order to correct a previous sales tally, which included the sale of an Azera that was later returned to a dealer.
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Because the dealership allowed the customer to return the vehicle after its sale was reported, Hyundai had to correct it by taking one unit away from the next sales month. What made it look so strange here was the fact that Hyundai didn’t have a sale unit to take away last month, so the figure dipped into the negatives.
But pour one out for the Azera, which most of us probably hadn’t thought about since Hyundai discontinued it before seeing its weird sales numbers this month, and which we probably won’t think about again for a while. It had a good run.
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