The third quarter of the year was dominated by the impacts of the semiconductor shortage, when passenger car sales declined 11.3%—which DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC) describes as “not an unusual figure.”
However, light truck sales fell 12.5%, and that is a much greater decline than for passenger cars and is described by DAC as “a reversal of the trend seen for most of the past decade.” This market was particularly hard-hit by chip shortages, which then led to both unexpected and unusual changes in the top selling models.
“The semiconductor shortage spread uneven damage across different manufacturers and models,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner of DAC. “The result was a notable reshuffling of the leaderboard of Canada’s best selling models.”
For passenger cars in Q3, Toyota Corolla claimed the top spot thanks to a 17.6% sales increase, as the Honda Civic moved down to second place with a 14.2% sales decline. The Corolla is also up 29.9% year-to-date, taking the top spot among passenger cars for the year thus far.
Among light trucks in Q3, the Honda CR-V managed a 9.5% sales increase for the quarter, and jumped straight into second place as most of the top selling light trucks recorded sales declines.
The Ford Escape managed a 10.3% sales increase, moving it up to seventh place, while the Subaru Crosstrek jumped 45.0% in terms of sales increases and made it to tenth place among light trucks.
“Year-to-date, the 32.2% sales increase noted for the Honda CR-V helped it claim fourth place and push the GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado down,” said DAC. “The Toyota RAV4 settled just under 2,000 units behind the second place Ram Pickup.”
But even with the significant sales decreases, the Ford F-Series continued to top the sales charts both for Q3 and year-to-date.
