All of the usual suspects are on the top-20 list of Canada's best selling vehicles for the first quarter of 2005, and the one surprise appearance says a lot about what it takes to really increase a vehicle's appeal with consumers.
For the most part, the list is restricted to the traditional best sellers from the compact car segment, minivans and full-size pickups and features a lot of familiar names -- Dodge Caravan, Ford F-Series, Honda Civic and so on.
But down there in 19th place is the Chevrolet Blazer, an aging, soon-to-be-defunct SUV that's probably never been near the country's best seller list before. The trick to its appearance now is a hyper-aggressive campaign by GM of Canada to sell the vehicle out as it nears extinction, using extremely low prices and extremely high advertising usage.
The other change of note is the overall decrease in the sales of large pickups, with all three of the brands on this list taking hits through the first quarter, but particularly the F-Series and Dodge Ram. The answer may lie outside this list, as that's where you find growing sales figures for compact pickups, many of which are much larger than they used to be but with smaller price tags.
Having said all that, here are the top-20 best-selling vehicles in Canada, with their sales so far in 2005, their sales for the same period last year in brackets, and the percentage change year-to-year.
For the most part, the list is restricted to the traditional best sellers from the compact car segment, minivans and full-size pickups and features a lot of familiar names -- Dodge Caravan, Ford F-Series, Honda Civic and so on.
But down there in 19th place is the Chevrolet Blazer, an aging, soon-to-be-defunct SUV that's probably never been near the country's best seller list before. The trick to its appearance now is a hyper-aggressive campaign by GM of Canada to sell the vehicle out as it nears extinction, using extremely low prices and extremely high advertising usage.
The other change of note is the overall decrease in the sales of large pickups, with all three of the brands on this list taking hits through the first quarter, but particularly the F-Series and Dodge Ram. The answer may lie outside this list, as that's where you find growing sales figures for compact pickups, many of which are much larger than they used to be but with smaller price tags.
Having said all that, here are the top-20 best-selling vehicles in Canada, with their sales so far in 2005, their sales for the same period last year in brackets, and the percentage change year-to-year.
- Dodge Caravan 15,680 (14,627) 7.2%
- Ford F-Series 15,018 (16,740) -10.3%
- Honda Civic 11,510 (10,436) 10.3%
- Toyota Corolla 8,807 (7,616) 15.6%
- Chevrolet Silverado 8,052 (8,329) -3.3%
- GMC Sierra 7,784 (8,771) -11.3%
- Mazda3 7,657 (9,913) -22.8%
- Dodge Ram Pickup 7,585 (10,148) -25.3%
- Toyota Echo 6,280 (6,595) -4.8%
- Pontiac Sunfire 5,556 (7,362) -24.5%
- Ford Focus 5,157 (5,709) -9.7%
- Honda Accord 4,792 (4,904) -2.3%
- Ford Escape 4,485 (4,502) -0.4%
- Pontiac Grand Am 4,339 (4,773) -9.1%
- Toyota Matrix 4,140 (3,598) 15.1%
- Chevrolet Cavalier 4,119 (6,521) -36.8%
- Ford Freestar 3,742 (4,112) -9.0%
- Chevrolet Uplander 3,700 (n.a) n.a.
- Chevrolet S/T Blazer 3,450 (444) 677.0%
- Honda CR-V 3,359 (3,318) 1.2%