New-vehicle sales in Canada were up for the third consecutive month in December, but their modest 2.6-per cent increase failed to realize the promise inherent in November’s gentle surge. As a result total sales of 1,585,519 in 2011 finished just 1.8 per cent ahead of 2010’s final figure.
That result was well short of the 1.6-million-plus sales of the boom years preceding the market’s collapse in 2009, but it was the best outcome since then and just about on (+0.08%) the average figure for the past five years.
December’s SAAR (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate) fell dramatically from November’s 1.61-1.63-million range to about 1.54 million (per DesRosiers Automotive Consultants), the lowest monthly sales rate since May .
“The overall market remains very soft,” says Dennis DesRosiers, all of which means that 2012 will likely start off being at least as erratic as 2011 has been.
Ford retains top spot
Ford sales fell (-0.5%) in December, relative to 2010, but the Blue Oval was still the top seller for the month and year (+3.0%) by a comfortable margin.
Sales for second-place General Motors were also off for the month (-9.4%), dragging the company’s annual results into negative territory as well (-1.6%).
Even Chrysler, which posted the best percentage improvement of the Detroit Three for the year (+12.5%), had a mediocre December (+1.4%).
Collectively, Detroit Three sales were down 3.3 percent in December, although they were up 4.1 percent for the year.
Compared to their averages for the past five years, Ford’s December sales were up (+15.4%) but Chrysler’s (-6.6%) and GM’s (-24.4%) were both down.
Japanese regain pace
For the second month in a row, import-brand sales bounced back in December, collectively up 8.1 percent from last year.
The Japanese led the way with a 10.2-percent increase, based largely on exceptional gains by Toyota (42.5%), Nissan (+38.6%) and Lexus (+31.1%), as well as a strong showing by Mitsubishi (+18.6%).
Toyota’s December was not only back on form, it was 6.5 percent above its five-year averages. And Nissan’s exceeded the five-year norm by 35.2 percent. Toyota was still down on the year (-5.6%) but Nissan made a modest gain (+3.9%).
Honda, however, continued to lag the market in December (-14.2%), after a strong result in November. Down 12.8 percent on the year, Honda slipped to fifth place in the annual sales rankings, behind Hyundai.
Subaru (+6.2%) had a solid month after a long period of supply shortages, but finished the year in negative territory (-3.0%). Mazda sales were off for both the month (-6.7%) and the year (-12.0%), as were Suzuki’s (-23.2% and –38.4% respectively).
Koreans and Europeans remain strong
Both Hyundai (+6.9%) and Kia (+12.9%) continued their relentless march up the sales charts in December, logging sales that were 36.4 per cent and 61.5 percent, respectively, above their five-year averages for the month.
Collectively, the Koreans’ sales were up 8.4 per cent for the month and 12.7 per cent for the year.
The Europeans as a collective had relatively flat month (+0.6%), but with some strong individual showings, particularly among the low-volume players: Jaguar (+121.9%), Land Rover (+93.2%) and Mini (+43.5%). There were some solid mainstream results as well including Audi (+30.9%) and Volvo (13.8%).
But Porsche (-62.6%), Mercedes-Benz (-9.2%), Volkswagen (-4.6%) and BMW (-1.7%) all showed up on the negative side of the ledger in December.
Nevertheless, all the Euros except Smart (-8.3%) made sales gains on the year. Land Rover (+26.75) was the biggest gainer of the group, followed by Audi (+17.7%), Volkswagen (+15.9%), Mini (+14.5%), BMW (+9.5%), Porsche (+8.7%), Volvo (+4.0%) and Jaguar (+2.8%).
Trucks trounce cars
Consistent with the prevailing trend, truck sales (+4.2%) outpaced those of passenger cars (+0.2%) in December. For the full year, truck sales were up by 4.7 per cent, with a market share of 56.2 percent, while car sales were down by 1.6 per cent from year ago, with just 43.8 per cent market share.
Compared to five-year averages, truck sales were up by 16.0 per cent with passenger-car sales down by 14.9 per cent.
