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October 2011 Sales

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Mathieu St-Pierre
Halloween has come and gone, closing out the month of October. While frightening for some manufacturers, for others the skies and smiles could not be brighter.

The ever increasing trend of luxury manufacturers injecting new, more affordable products onto the market is making its mark. Case in point: Land Rover. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Land Rover has increased its deliveries by a staggering 57.2% last month, compared to last year. Can you smell success? For LR, it's called “Eau de Range Rover Evoque.” Bravo.

Coming in second place is Mercedes. What did we just say? Dust off the C-Class, spruce it up, and sell it! Mercedes' numbers have climbed 17.9% YOY. Obviously, it's not all about the small cars here, but they certainly play a big role. Up next is KIA. If you we're paying attention to AJAC's Car of the Year recent announcements, KIA took honours twice for their delightful Optima. With a 15.4% rise in sales, KIA's market share continues to climb.

With jumps in the 12 to 13% range, Chrysler and Hyundai are sitting pretty. Even Volvo did well last month.

Now, the not-so-good news.

Suzuki continues its downward spiral dropping a further 38.1% YOY. Year to date, Suzuki is 41.1% behind the number it accumulated at this time last year. Not good. Very not good.

The cloud cover briefly moved in at Porsche in October as sales dropped by 35.1%. Fear not though as year-to-date, the brand is up by 20.7%. On the last step of the podium comes smart. Their numbers fell 21% last month and YTD, they're down 11.3%. The potential coming of a forfour might help. Also in the 20+% loss category is Mitsubishi.

The industry's hardest hit full-line manufacturer remains Honda. They, and their luxury division Acura, respectively dropped 12.3% and 14.5% in deliveries last month. The real story is that YTD, Honda is 15.5% behind and Acura, 13.7%. A fast-tracked revamp of the Civic and a revised CR-V for next year may help the cause, however, there seems to be little or no help in the pipeline for Acura any time soon. Sad.

OctoberCurrent MonthYTD
 2011201011/102011201011/10
Acura14721722-14.5%1218214112-13.7%
Audi141413802.5%147271269116.0%
BMW243224250.3%24556224409.4%
Chrysler169451507212.4%19897117455114.0%
Ford1918219660-2.4%2383902300303.6%
General Motors19542179159.1%2065822063760.1%
Honda976011134-12.3%87213103206-15.5%
Hyundai10242913812.1%1143331046649.2%
Infiniti703820-14.3%58977066-16.5%
Jaguar53521.9%644668-3.6%
Kia5180448815.4%568504682121.4%
Land Rover37123657.2%2456213015.3%
Lexus122912200.7%1110412354-10.1%
Mazda53775657-4.9%5914968151-13.2%
Mercedes-Benz2767234617.9%25365240575.4%
MINI4314066.2%4201374012.3%
Mitsubishi14651847-20.7%16879160135.4%
Nissan52676134-14.1%65693651520.8%
Porsche120185-35.1%2058170520.7%
Saab126-n.a.150-n.a.
smart98124-21.0%15431739-11.3%
Subaru23142431-4.8%2247922890-1.7%
Suzuki435703-38.1%46157836-41.1%
Toyota13751133203.2%12288713776510.8%
Volkswagen462843067.5%450242771719.4%
Volvo49043713.2%588156054.9%
Light Vehicle Sales1256801231542.1%134982913294791.5%
Passenger Car5272354937-4.0%596651609094-2.0%
Light Truck72957682176.9%7531787203854.6%
GM/Ford/Chrysler Nameplates55669526475.7%6439436109575.4%
Import Nameplates7001170507-0.7%705886718522-1.8%
Sales History2007200820092010201111/10
January91.2102.876.981.684.53.6%
February97.0111.080.2100.296.0-4.2%
March150.7150.0127.5145.4153.55.5%
April169.0175.2143.9149.7159.96.9%
May185.5184.5154.0154.3149.0-3.8%
June169.2159.5138.5154.6164.86.6%
July142.4149.5139.9148.8141.5-4.9%
August158.4147.0135.4136.1140.43.2%
September131.8134.1129.5135.1134.5-0.4%
October120.9122.7121.5123.2125.72.1%
November117.3105.2102.1116.0  
December119.994.4111.2111.0  
Full Year1653.41636.01460.61557.1  
Note: Sales figures above are in thousands.
Source : Desrosiers Automotive Report
Mathieu St-Pierre
Mathieu St-Pierre
Automotive expert