Hilarious: Canadians Can't Even Buy a Focus Active Under Ford's New Plan
For a country that looks at its southern neighbor’s gasoline prices with lust and envy, you’d think small cars would make up a greater share of the vehicle mix. Well, they don’t. Canadians like their crossovers, pickups, and SUVs even more than Americans, and Ford’s future product lineup shows it.
It seems like just yesterday you could walk into a Ford dealer and check out a stingy and unsafe Aspire, before the hungry salesman upsold you on an Escort (or perhaps its sporty ZX2 sibling). Then there was the Contour, Taurus, and Crown Victoria to consider.
Those days are gone, and under Ford’s new truck-centric product plan, which ditches the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, and Taurus, Canada won’t even get the crossover-ized Focus Active hatch. It’s a Mustang or nothing for small car lovers.
Apparently, we’ve made our bed and now need to lie in it.
News of this change comes by way of Autofocus, which quotes Ford Canada communications manager Christine Hollander as saying Canadians just don’t buy enough cars to warrant the model’s introduction.
“The car segment in Canada has been declining steadily since 2012 and now makes up just 33 percent of the overall market,” Hollander said. “Going in the other direction, SUV and crossover sales have been growing steadily since 2012 and now account for about 44 percent of all vehicle sales in Canada. And that trend of car sales declining as more consumers choose SUVs is expected to continue. So, we are focusing our efforts on vehicles customers prefer.”
It’s your fault, Greg in Moncton, and yours too, Crystal in Trois-Rivières. The only passenger car to crack the top 10 in monthly sales volume in Canada is the Honda Civic, positioned far below the best-selling Ford F-150. The best-selling Ford car last month was the Focus — in 39th place, according to GoodCarBadCar.
Canadians apparently prefer compact offerings from Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Honda, Kia, Subaru, Chevrolet, and Volkswagen before they turn to the Blue Oval for a small car. As for the Fusion, which disappears south of the border, too, the BMW 3 Series is more popular in the Great White North. Hell, the Canadian-market Nissan Micra moved more metal last month. It’s a grim country for cars.
My neighbor already owns an EcoSport.
[Image: Ford]
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I wish (affordable) small cars didn't all have such insipid engine choices.
@mikey--What you have said about affordable housing is true. It is hard for many especially younger people starting out to own their own home and pay off student debts. It is hard to be interested in the latest and greatest car or truck if you are barely getting by financially. I don't believe it is fair to blame unions for all of the problems with the auto industry. Over paid executives and focus on short-term profitability at the expense of long term sustainability. Also most vehicles do not have the whoa factor in that the vehicle is so attractive and desirable that you just have to have it. True today's vehicles are safer, cleaner, more efficient, and overall more reliable but many have the appeal of a toaster especially with the choice of colors both exterior and interior wise. Additionally many new vehicles are bought by older buyers which include me. Again this gets back to what I stated previously about younger peoples ability to afford new vehicles. Its not that many younger people don't want to its that they have other financial obligations.