Cain's Segments April 2014: Canada Recap

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

In a record-setting April for the Canadian auto industry, Ford Canada reclaimed its position atop the sales leaderboard by outselling the Chrysler Group’s various and sundry brands by a handful of units.

The Chrysler Group’s five brands continue to lead the way in year-to-date terms thanks to Jeep and Ram success. According to Chrysler Canada, cars account for 13% of the company’s sales this year, down from 20% in the same period of 2013. Even without a single car sale, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram would be outselling all of General Motors in Canada in 2014.

It’s not as though Chrysler is alone with its poor car results. (Excluding the 200 and Avenger, Chrysler Canada car sales are down 14%, rather than 31%.) The industry, according to Automotive News, has suffered from a 5% decrease in passenger car sales in 2014.

And while April results weren’t as bad – the 1% drop equalled a loss of only around 500 units – the car category’s decline was worsened by major losses among some of the country’s top sellers. The Honda Civic and Hyundai Elantra, Canada’s two best-selling cars, were down 14% and 15%, respectively, in April. As a result, the Toyota Corolla was Canada’s most popular car last month.

At Acura, BMW, Buick, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mini, Porsche, Scion, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo, year-to-date passenger car sales have decreased.

In the month of April, specifically, car sales accounted for just 43.6% of the Canadian auto industry’s record-setting volume, down from 45.7% in April 2013, and 49.4% in April 2012.

Pickups have made headway, although sales of trucks have fallen slightly this year and in the month of April as numerous nameplates disappeared, the GM twins failed to improve their Canadian totals, and the replacement phase begins for Ford’s aging but best-selling F-Series.

Sales of utility vehicles are booming. Seven dozen SUVs and crossovers produced a 12% year-over-year April sales improvement.

Canada’s perennial SUV/CUV leader, the Ford Escape, was up 18% to 4821 sales in April, a strong enough result for the Escape to outsell all but three vehicles: two trucks and one car.

Over the last four months, SUVs and crossovers have been responsible for just under one-third of the industry’s Canadian sales. With surging Rogue sales and strong Pathfinder volume, Nissan’s utility vehicles now make up 8.3% of the SUV/CUV market, a notable improvement on the 6.5% achieved at this stage last year. Rogue sales have jumped 81% in 2014. It currently ranks fifth among utility vehicles, behind the Escape, CR-V, Toyota RAV4, and Hyundai Santa Fe Sport.

Jeep, thanks mostly to the new Cherokee, is up 40% to 18,945 sales in 2014. Jeep set an all-time Canadian monthly sales record in April. Land Rover, the only premium brand to sell nothing but SUVs, is up 30% to 2169 units in 2014, outselling Lincoln in the process; outselling Jaguar and Mini combined.

But Nissan is the headline grabber. Nissan was Canada’s ninth-best-selling brand in April 2013 but moved up to the sixth position one year later with a 29% year-over-year jump, an increase bettered only by Maserati, Fiat, and Jeep. The Titan and Frontier continue to be mostly ignored trucks, but they are selling more often this year than in 2013. Nissan owns 7.1% of the commercial van category in 2014, up from 4.4% in early 2013. Moreover, Nissan passenger car sales are on the rise.

2013 ended with record Nissan brand sales. At the current pace, the Nissan division is on track for its first ever calendar year above 100,000 sales. Meanwhile, the brand’s premium Infiniti division is following up on a record 2013 with improved sales in the early part of 2013, as well.

As for the industry as a whole, 2013’s banner year for Canadian auto sales is set to lose its record-setting status. Early summer will tell the tale. The April-July period of 2013 generated nearly 40% of the calendar year’s sales. If Canadian automobile buyers don’t buy vehicles in especially large numbers over the next three months, the market won’t make up for such stagnation later on in 2014.

Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

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  • Mikey Mikey on May 14, 2014

    Oops! Guilty as charged..My bad. Sorry "IhateCars". I was multi tasking this morning,and I hadn't had my first coffee.

  • Lou_BC Lou_BC on May 14, 2014

    Unless one lives on Vancouver Island, Sunshine Coast, or lower Mainland inclement winter weather favours SUV's and CUV's. The CUV segment has been very successful at wooing buyers. GM's truck strategy may be making short term profits but the problem with conquest sales is the fact that those buyers tend not to go back to their previous brand. Truck guys tend to be loyal and if they cross the floor, they aren't crossing back. I do not see as many 2014 Sierra/Silverado trucks as one would expect to see. A fellow on a truck blog says he has seen a 2015 F150 in the wilds of Northern Alberta (Fort Mac).

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    • Rpn453 Rpn453 on May 23, 2014

      It might be less about inclement weather and more about cratered roads. An AWD car is great fun in the winter, but then spring comes along and the ground opens up to gorge on wheels, preferably the ones without those big, chewy sidewalls.

  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
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