By Gerry Malloy
After two strong sales months to kick off 2018, widespread predictions of a softening in the Canadian auto market seem to be materializing. For the third month in a row, new-vehicles sales were down in May. Though not by much.
While sales of 215,407 vehicles were 0.7% below those for the same month last year, they were still the second-best ever for the month. And, thanks to the strength of the first two months, year-to-date sales of 836,522 new vehicles are still the best ever, albeit by just 0.1% from a year ago.
In addition, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC), May’s SAAR (Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Sales Rate) rebounded from an April dip to once again top 2-million.
All of which suggests that the market remains strong, if not growing, and that a second 2-million-plus sales year is still a realistic possibility.
Customers’ preference for light trucks, including crossovers and SUVS, continued in May, with truck sales up 4.0% from a year ago, while passenger car sales fell, by 9.4%. Still, it was a minor rebound for car sales as they claimed 29.6% of the market — their best performance this year in terms of market share — compared to 70.4% for trucks.
Still a tight race at the top
For the second consecutive month, Ford topped the sales charts in May with 33,341 vehicles sold, thanks in large part to the best May sales ever for the industry-leading F-Series pickup. Still, Ford’s total sales were down 3.3% from May 2017 and its year-to-date sales of 124,391 vehicles, down 3.3%, leave the blue oval in second place behind General Motors for the first five months of 2018.
While GM continues to hold the top spot year-to-date with 127,299 sales, up 3.2% from last year, it ranked second in May. While GM’s 32, 831 sales were up 5.4%, they still lagged Ford by more than 500 vehicles for the month.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is now a distant third in the sales race for both the month and the year. May sales of 28,193 vehicles were down 15.0% from the same month last year and year-to-date sales of 12,332 were down 9.9%.
In terms of market share, year-to-date, the Detroit three collectively gave up 1.5%, falling to 43.5%. GM picked up 0.4%, to 15.2%, while Ford fell by the same amount to 14.9% and FCA gave up 1.5%, dropping to 13.4%.
Strength across the market
Behind the Detroit three, there was widespread strength across most brands, with a cumulative market gain of 1.4%, to 56.5%.
Toyota, in fourth-place, maintained its pace of steady growth with sales o4 22,021 units up 1.9% in May and 3.3% YTD, enabling the Japanese sales leader’s market share to once again reach 10.0%, an increase of 0.3% from a year ago.
After a couple months of decline, fifth-place Honda’s 19,794 sales in May were up 3.2%, helping boost year-to-date gains to 1.5% and market share by 0.1%, to 8.8%.
Hyundai’s 13,963 sales, down 8.9% from a year ago, barely kept it in sixth-place for the month. Year-to-date, the brand remains in seventh place, with sales down 11.6% and a share decline of 0.8% to 5.7%.
Nissan was a close seventh for the month, with sales of 13,236 units up 3.2% from last year. Thanks to its strength earlier in the year, however, Nissan maintained sixth place year-to-date with sales up 3.1% from a year ago and market share ahead by 0.2% to 6.7%.
With 7,750 sales, up 6.9%, Mazda surpassed Kia to reclaim eighth-place in May. That increase pushed year to-date-sales increases to 5.4%, maintaining the brand’s eighth-place ranking and supporting a 0.2% gain in market share, to 3.7%.
That gain came at the expense of Kia, whose 3.5% sales decline dropped it to ninth place in the rankings, for both the month and YTD. Sales to-date in 2018 are down by just 0.2%, although Kia’s market share remained steady at 3.4%.
Volkswagen’s sales continued their upward trend in May, up 11.4% from a year ago. Year-to-date, they’re 20.9% ahead of last year and VW’s market share gained 0.5% to 3.1%.
Subaru, now solidly in 11th place, continued its steady climb with a 2.1% sales increase, supporting a 5.5% year-do-date gain and a 0.1% increase in market share, to 2.7%.
Mercedes-Benz – the best-selling luxury brand — maintained its 12th-place ranking with a 10.5% gain in May, boosting year-to-date sales gains to 2.3%, although its market share slipped 0.1% to 2.6%.
Behind M-B in the luxury rankings, Audi pulled clear of BMW for both the month and the year-to-date, but the cumulative difference between the two is just 135 units. It’s the tightest race in the industry, so stay tuned!
Winners and losers
On a percentage basis, the biggest winners in March were Genesis (+125.8%), Volvo (+41.8%), Land Rover (+28.7%) and Mitsubishi (+20.1%).
The biggest losers, in percentage terms, were Maserati (-31.4%), Infiniti (-15.6%), FCA (-15.0%), Hyundai (-8.9%), and Lexus (-8.3%).
