The usual suspects are atop Canada's list of best-selling vehicles for the first five months of the year - compacts, full-size pickups and minivans - but changes in the full lineup of cars shows that tectonic shifts are underway in what Canadians want in a vehicle.
The big story is still the decline in full-size pickup sales. The annual decline is 8.9 percent (from 91,236 to 83,091), but May was slightly less bad (from 19,698 to 18,370, or -4.9 percent). It looks like many of those folks have decided to pay less for the "compact" pickup that are a lot closer in size to the large pickups than they used to be.
Dennis DesRosiers, the Richmond Hill-based auto consultant who gathers these statistics, is struck by some things that are happening and even more by some things that aren't.
"You would think that with these high gas prices consumers would be moving away from the larger SUV's," DesRosiers notes, but it's "Not so. Although large SUVs were down about 200 units in May (-10.6 percent), luxury SUVs were up about 1,300 units (+39.1 percent) and intermediate SUVs were up about 2,000 units as well (+27.9 percent). The same trend holds for YTD sales as well."
At the same time, DesRosiers says, "entry-level vehicle sales are trending above average as well, with subcompact cars up 23.7 percent for the month and small pickups up 41.9 percent for the month."
These changes are part of what DesRosiers believes is a "long term trend to moving away from mid-sized vehicles such as minivans and intermediate-sized cars. These segments were down a combined 16.6 percent in May, and 4.0 percent year-to-date."
What's also interesting is that many of the folks moving out of mid-market vehicles are going upscale. "About a third of these consumers are moving up market," DesRosiers says, "with large/luxury/sport growing 12.7 percent on the month and 14.1 percent year-to-date and about two-thirds moving down market, with entry level vehicles growing 5.0 percent on the month and 5.6 percent year-to-date."
Here are the top-20 vehicles for the first five months of 2005, with their totals for 2005, their sales for 2004 in brackets, and the percentage change.
The big story is still the decline in full-size pickup sales. The annual decline is 8.9 percent (from 91,236 to 83,091), but May was slightly less bad (from 19,698 to 18,370, or -4.9 percent). It looks like many of those folks have decided to pay less for the "compact" pickup that are a lot closer in size to the large pickups than they used to be.
Dennis DesRosiers, the Richmond Hill-based auto consultant who gathers these statistics, is struck by some things that are happening and even more by some things that aren't.
"You would think that with these high gas prices consumers would be moving away from the larger SUV's," DesRosiers notes, but it's "Not so. Although large SUVs were down about 200 units in May (-10.6 percent), luxury SUVs were up about 1,300 units (+39.1 percent) and intermediate SUVs were up about 2,000 units as well (+27.9 percent). The same trend holds for YTD sales as well."
At the same time, DesRosiers says, "entry-level vehicle sales are trending above average as well, with subcompact cars up 23.7 percent for the month and small pickups up 41.9 percent for the month."
These changes are part of what DesRosiers believes is a "long term trend to moving away from mid-sized vehicles such as minivans and intermediate-sized cars. These segments were down a combined 16.6 percent in May, and 4.0 percent year-to-date."
What's also interesting is that many of the folks moving out of mid-market vehicles are going upscale. "About a third of these consumers are moving up market," DesRosiers says, "with large/luxury/sport growing 12.7 percent on the month and 14.1 percent year-to-date and about two-thirds moving down market, with entry level vehicles growing 5.0 percent on the month and 5.6 percent year-to-date."
Here are the top-20 vehicles for the first five months of 2005, with their totals for 2005, their sales for 2004 in brackets, and the percentage change.
- Ford F-Series 29,217 (31,159) -6.2%
- Dodge Caravan 26,973 (28,071) -3.9%
- Honda Civic 23,794 (22,440) 6.0%
- Mazda3 21,175 (20,484) 3.4%
- Toyota Corolla 19,035 (18,738) 1.6%
- GMC Sierra 15,584 (16,541) -5.8%
- Chevrolet Silverado 15,222 (15,832) -3.9%
- Dodge Ram Pickup 14,589 (18,582) -21.5%
- Toyota Echo 13,663 (13,286) 2.8%
- Pontiac Sunfire 11,557 (15,373) -24.8%
- Ford Focus 10,534 (11,692) -9.9%
- Honda Accord 9,962 (9,207) 8.2%
- Toyota Matrix 9,552 (7,585) 25.9%
- Pontiac Grand Am 9,106 (10,526) -13.5%
- Chevrolet Uplander 8,366 - n.a.
- Ford Escape 8,338 (8,415) -0.9%
- Toyota Camry 8,225 (7,782) 5.7%
- Pontiac Montana SV6 7,530 - n.a.
- Ford Freestar 7,421 (8,552) -13.2%
- Honda CR-V 6,309 (5,963) 5.8%