New vehicle sales in Canada continued to climb in July, up 4.7 per cent from the same month last year – the sixth month out of seven that sales have topped 2011’s. Year-to-date sales through July are 6.7 per cent ahead of last year’s.
July’s sales of 148,184 vehicles were also 2.6 per cent ahead of their five-year average and year-to-date-sales of 1,013,094 were up 5.9 per cent from the five-year norm.
Just as important, the SAAR (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate) for July was about 1.68 million (per DesRosiers Automotive Consultants) – down slightly from June but right in line with the average for the year.
So far, the SAAR has surpassed 1.6 million every month in 2012 and is averaging just over 1.68 million. If that momentum continues, 2012 could be the second best sales year ever.
Imports continue to dominate advance
Import brands continued to drive the overall sales increase with collective sales up by 9.1 per cent for the month – almost twice the overall rate of gain – compared to a 0.4 per cent advance for the Detroit Three.
Toyota (+31.0%) and Honda (+25.5%) were the volume gainers compared to 2011, when supplies were constrained by the Japanese disasters. But both are still slightly short of their year-to-date averages for the past five years (Honda -3.1%; Toyota -2.4%).
Other double-digit import-brand gainers included Smart (+73.2%), Land Rover (+49.5%), MINI (+33.9%), Porsche (+26.5%), Subaru (+23.3%), Kia (+20.4%), Infiniti (+19.7%), Lexus (+18.3%), Acura (+16.4%), Audi (+14.0%) and Mercedes-Benz (+12.0%).
On the negative side of the import ledger were Jaguar (-22.5%), Nissan (-33.3%) and Volvo (-37.2%).
Much of the import brand’ gains came from their truck models, sales of which were up 15.6 per cent versus 5.5 percent for passenger cars.
Year-to-date, the imports claim 54.6 per cent of the market to the D3’s 45.4 percent – a 2.7-per cent gain for imports from this time last year.
Detroit Three lag market
Detroit Three sales were up just 0.4 per cent from July 2011 and sales of all three lagged behind the overall market improvement (Chrysler +3.4%; Ford +2.2%; General Motors -5.6%).
Ford still outsold all other automakers for July, however, and remains solidly in first place year-to-date – thanks in large part to its best-selling F-Series pickups, sales of which were up 12.2 per cent through the first half.
Collectively, the D3 have lost 2.7 per cent of market share year-to-date, compared to this time in 2011 – with GM (-1.8%) the biggest loser.
Both Chrysler’s and Ford’s year-to-date sales remained ahead of their five-year averages (by +17.6% and +16.1% respectively), but GM’s sales (-25.2%) fell well short of that norm.
Truck sales rebound
Overall sales rankings continue their familiar pattern with Ford followed by Chrysler and GM, then Toyota, Hyundai, Honda and Nissan. Kia is closing in on Nissan for seventh place (just 754 units behind), however, and is now well clear of Mazda.
Among premium brands, Mercedes-Benz has established a solid lead on BMW, both of which are well clear of Audi, which is followed by Acura, Lexus and Infiniti.
After several months of passenger cars posting greater rates of sales increase than trucks, that situation turned around in June and July followed suit. Truck sales were up by 8.6 per cent while those for passenger cars fell 0.1 per cent.
Year-to date, however, car sales are ahead by 8.8 per cent compared to 5.5 per cent for trucks but trucks now account for 54.2 per cent of the market while cars claim 45.8 percent. That’s a 0.9-per cent swing in favour of cars from a year ago.
