What a month it was. New vehicle sales in Canada during January were up a phenomenal 25.4 per cent from 2011 – the greatest monthly year-over-year increase since February 2010. And Chrysler toppled Ford and General Motors to claim the top sales spot.
Perhaps more important than the year-over year improvement, January’s sales were 11.6 per cent up on the average for the past five years and second only to 2008’s in that period.
And, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, they equated to a SAAR (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate) of 1.7 million – the highest level in four years (since January 2008).
Those numbers “surprised everyone, including myself,” said Dennis DesRosiers.
While that is all good news, it’s too early to start celebrating, or even thinking about a record year.
That 1.7-million SAAR is a big swing from December’s below-par 1.54-million performance. Which suggests that some of January’s success is the result of deferred purchases and may not be indicative of a trend.
Besides, DesRosiers pointed out, “you always have to be careful with January sales since it is always the lowest sales month during the year and we really don’t get a firm read on the market until after the huge spring selling season.”
Nevertheless, it was good news almost all the way down the sales chart, with only General Motors (-10.9%), Suzuki (-26.6%) and Volvo (-14.4%), among active brands, coming up short of last January’s numbers.
For many, it was their best January ever.
Japanese brands rebound
DesRosiers suggests, “that the upside came from pent-up demand for import nameplate products,” noting that market share for import brands jumped from 49.8 per cent last January to 54.4 per cent in 2012.
That said, the import share for January remained exactly the same as it was in December.
Year-over-year, Honda made the biggest mark with sales up a phenomenal 148.3 per cent from last year – and 31.6 per cent from its five-year average – clearly setting up the Civic for its 15th-annual passenger-car sales crown.
Acura (+24.9%), Nissan (+24.4%) and Toyota (+18.3%) also made strong gains, and all the other Japanese brands except Suzuki improved sales over last year.
It was a big month for European luxury brands as well: Land Rover (+79.2%); BMW (+35.2%); Mercedes-Benz (+32.9%); and Audi (+31.7%). All picked up Market share as well.
True to form, the Koreans continued their inexorable climb up the sales charts, with Kia gaining 23.8 per cent and Hyundai 11.6 per cent. Collectively, however, they broke even in terms of market share with Kia’s 0.26% share gain offset by an identical share loss by Hyundai.
Mixed fortunes for Detroit Three
Collectively the D3 maintained the same 45.6% market share they held in December, but their individual results varied dramatically.
As noted, with sales up 21.9 per cent from last year and 17.9 per cent from their five-year average for the month, Chrysler claimed first place in sales, clearly add of both Ford and GM, with an impressive 16.9-per cent of the market.
That achievement caps 21 straight months of sales growth and comes largely as a result of a doubling in passenger-car sales for Chrysler.
Ford made a respectable 4.6-per cent gain over 2011, and was up 22.6 per cent on its five-year average, but in a market that was up 15.4 per cent, actually lost 1.6% of share (to 15.4%).
But GM’s performance, in comparison was disastrous; sales were down 10.9 per cent from last year and 29.7 per cent from their five-year average. And GM lost 3.9 percent in share. Down to 13.3 percent, which may be an all-time low.
As DesRosiers put it, “in a market that was up by 15.4 percent … this is a whole pile of not good!”
Cars make a comeback
Perhaps because of the strong Japanese rebound and continued strength of European luxury brands, as well as Chrysler’s strong car-side results, passenger cars reversed a long-standing trend in January by outpacing trucks in terms of sales increase.
Passenger-car sales were up by 28.4 per cent while truck sales increased by just 7.4 per cent.
Cars gained 4.2 per cent in share compared to last January, but still claimed only 42.2 per cent of the market – which is still below their full-year performance (43.8%) in 2011.
One month does not a year make!
