Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: What The Canadians Bought In 2012

Two words, oil sands. The oil industry in Alberta and Saskatchewan accounts for a massive amount of fleet truck sales. On the retail end, Canadian truck buyers are much like American truck buyers, they love their cowboy limos. Even if fuel is around 30% more expensive than in the US.

The market used to have a lot more choice - small trucks were very popular, especially in rural areas. I imagine at least some of those full-size truck sales are pickups priced and spec'd down to where the small trucks used to be. Also the Jeep Wrangler is at #20, which even given what I just wrote I find surprising.

@danio3834 It's all about value. Cars in Canada are *expensive*. We also don't have the same prejudices as the US. Chryco's Caravan can be had for less that $20k. Yeah, it's a value pkg, but so? Same for the F150. There's a value pkg that's FX4 based. S/crew 4x4, V8, 6.5' box, power conv. group, bedliner, running boards. About $30k. Compared to $35k for a "midsize" of no particular merit it looks like a hell of a value especially if you compare the backseat room. The F150 is *huge*! Come to Toronto and you'll see them everywhere.

Indeed the trucks are mostly in Alberta and the rest of the prairies. While there are pickup trucks in southern Ontario, the F-series is far away from being the top seller in the Toronto area.

@Neb The US Industry with NAFTA makes US vehicles a whole lot cheaper than ANY imports outside NA. Seeing your Japanese and Korean offerings come from there as well. Similar to Australia and New Zealand. We have our differences, vehicles are slighter higher in NZ but because of the Free Trade Agreement, you see a similar car culture and vehicle ownership.

@Dimwit Under $20K for a stripper Caravan sounds like a fair value for someone that wants a Caravan. $30K for a stripper FISO, even a 4-door one, still sounds like sticker shock.

"I wonder why Canucks prefer full size PU over the “superior” global midsizers..?" The reason in pretty clear. NO regular cabs... The Taco and Frontier ONLY come in Access and King Cabs in Canadia for base strippers. What's the point of mid-size at that point? This shows EXACTLY why the mid-size truck market sucks for OEMs, but loved by cheapskates and bottom feeders alike. Take away the base-base strippers and there's not much meat left on the bone!

@DenverMike Where's Big Al and RR? They should love this!

@DenverMike I'm confused. Are you saying that Canadians would buy significantly more Tacomas if they could get single cabs like the US can?

@CJinSD Exactly CJ. It's obvious regular cabs strippers are the meat and potatoes of the North... I mean US mid-size pickup market. OEMs won't admit it, but the proof is everywhere. So are the strippers. This also explains why Frontier sales are so pathetic in the US. No regular cab Frontiers down here either.

@Neb "The market used to have a lot more choice – small trucks were very popular, especially in rural areas. " Something we have noted in our Free Trade with New Zealand a lot of their vehicle mix started to look like ours.

@Nebs - Small truck choices were at one time encouraged/sponsored by CAFE, BUT in the early '90s, CAFE change the rules and made all trucks equally exempt from the Gas Guzzler tax. Natural selection took over and small truck sales (except for base strippers) thinned and therefor, choices started to go away.