Canadian car sales stats for July 2009

Like every other market on the planet, Canada continues to suffer from the crisis in the auto industry and the economy as a whole. Overall, in July, passenger car sales dropped 14.4 percent while light-duty truck sales increased by 4.4 percent. In the U.S., the results are fairly identical with a drop of 12.2 percent during the same month.


Yet, some automakers posted remarkable stats for July. Ford keeps building good momentum, with 26,795 vehicles sold in Canada -- a 47.6-percent rise over July of 2008. Even better, Ford was the best-selling automaker in the country for a second consecutive month. Success is also found across the border, where the blue-oval brand was one of the few companies to record a sales increase in July (+2.4 percent).

Hyundai and Volvo are other strong manufacturers, with an improvement of 37.8 and 39.4 percent, respectively. Audi topped the 40-percent mark (40.3), while Kia maintained its spectacular rise with a progression of 29.6 percent from last year’s period.

Of course, times are more difficult for some. The largest sales drops were posted by GM (-41.6 percent), Honda (-21.6 percent) and Toyota (-14.2 percent). Saab, smart and Land Rover didn’t fare much better, but these are low-volume sellers.

In some cases, there’s a sizeable difference between Canada and the U.S. Jaguar/Land Rover, for instance, has been enjoying a 195.5-percent improvement since January despite a tough month of July.

Over there, BMW (-26.6 percent), Nissan (-24.6 percent), Porsche (-50.6 percent) and Toyota (-11.4 percent) all posted losses in July. Actually, the only ones with a positive record were Ford, Hyundai (9.0 percent) and Subaru (34.2 percent).

Despite a drop of 19.4 percent, General Motors is still the highest volume seller in Uncle Sam’s land with 188,156 units sold. That’s about 14,000 more than Toyota and 24,000 more than Ford.

July	Month			Year to date
	2009	2008	09/08	2009	2008	09/08
Acura	1,644	1,531	7.4%	9,764	12,362	-21.0%
Audi	822	586	40.3%	6254	5213	20.0%
BMW	2398	2139	12.1%	13789	13974	-1.3%
Chrysler	15,891	17,673	-10.1%	92,826	145,828	-36.3%
Ford	26,765	18,131	47.6%	134,569	131,420	2.4%
General Motors	19,527	33,418	-41.6%	152,751	222,526	-31.4%
Honda	11,340	14,465	-21.6%	73,063	98,056	-25.5%
Hyundai	10,488	7,611	37.8%	62,942	50,809	23.9%
Infiniti	702	713	-1.5%	4,043	5,010	-19.3%
Jaguar	90	93	-3.2%	499	631	-20.9%
Kia	5,110	3,942	29.6%	27,219	22,603	20.4%
Land Rover	129	171	-24.6%	1,030	1,405	-26.7%
Lexus	1,512	1,327	13.9%	8,788	9,121	-3.7%
Mazda	6,491	7,966	-18.5%	45,282	54,864	-17.5%
Mercedes-Benz	1,978	1,807	9.5%	13,947	11,968	16.5%
MINI	442	501	-11.8%	2,431	2,852	-14.8%
Mitsubishi	1,901	1,602	18.7%	11,956	11,571	3.3%
Nissan	6,832	7,060	-3.2%	42,958	47,270	-9.1%
Porsche	200	146	37.0%	1,086	1,146	-5.2%
Saab	38	268	-85.8%	563	986	-42.9%
smart	290	502	-42.2%	1,464	2,466	-40.6%
Subaru	1,824	2,002	-8.9%	11,904	11,734	1.4%
Suzuki	1,158	1,268	-8.7%	6,881	7,886	-12.7%
Toyota	17,720	20,663	-14.2%	107,886	134,033	-19.5%
Volkswagen	4,018	3,506	14.6%	23,006	22,471	2.4%
Volvo	591	424	39.4%	4,018	4,317	-6.9%
Light Vehicle	139,901	149,515	-6.4%	860,919	1,032,522	-16.6%
Passenger Car	73,427	85,826	-14.4%	448,050	579,659	-22.7%
Light Truck	66,474	63,689	4.4%	412,869	452,863	-8.8%
GM/Ford/Chrysler Nameplates	62,183	69,222	-10.2%	380,146	499,774	-23.9%
Import	77,718	80,293	-3.2%	480,773	532,748	-9.8%
Sales History	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	09/08
January	79.2	86.2	91.2	102.8	76.9	-25.3%
February	102.7	97.4	97.0	111.0	80.2	-27.7%
March	144.5	151.3	150.7	150.0	127.5	-15.0%
April	163.2	155.1	169.0	175.2	143.9	-17.8%
May	157.6	168.2	185.5	184.5	154.0	-16.5%
June	161.4	157.3	169.2	159.5	138.5	-13.2%
July	154.8	141.6	142.4	149.5	139.9	-6.4%
August	142.5	153.6	158.4	147.0
September	124.2	135.8	131.8	134.1
October	115.2	118.4	120.9	122.7
November	120.2	123.5	117.3	105.2
December	117.8	126.3	119.9	94.4
Full Year	1583.3	1614.7	1653.4	1636.0
Note: Sales figures above are in thousands.

Source: Desrosiers Automotive Report
photo:Jupiter Images