Automotive consultant Dennis Desrosiers recently updated his list of the top-selling cars and light trucks [PDF] in Canada. Here's a slightly edited version his rankings with the manufacturer and model, the number of units sold for the first 11 months of 2008 and the percentage change in units sold compared to the first 11 months of 2007:
Cars
- Honda Civic – 68,904 – 8 %
- Toyota Corolla – 55,535 – 44 %
- Mazda3 – 47,351 – 3.5%
- Toyota Yaris – 39,416 – 20.1%
- Chevrolet Cobalt – 32,231 – 4.4%
Of some note, four of the top-selling cars in Canada are made by Toyota: Corolla, Yaris, Camry and Matrix. Two are made by General Motors, the Cobalt and the Pontiac G5. Ford has one: The Focus was number 10. Chrysler and Nissan failed to place any car in the top 10. Honda and Hyundai each had one in the top 10.
Light trucks
- Ford F-Series – 63,977 – -6.7 %
- Dodge Ram – 39,350 – 2.4 %
- Dodge Caravan – 37,587 – 25.6 %
- Chevrolet Silverado – 32,265 – -12.7 %
- GMC Sierra – 32,161 – -13.5 %
Looking just at those two top five lists, you'll being to get a sense of the problems the Detroit Three are having. For the Detroit Three, the franchise has been pickup trucks and minivans. Chrysler did OK with its best-selling pickup truck the Dodge Ram, but sales of the minivan Caravan plummeted. Desrosiers says that overall sales of small pickups was down 6.7 for the year at the end of November. Large pickup sales were off 9.2 per cent. Minivan sales plunged 17.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, Toyota is seeing a great year with the RAV4 SUV, with YTD sales up 31.7 %. Honda saw sales of its CRV jump 3.8 %. Both the RAV4 and CRV made the light truck top ten.
It wasn't so bad with cars. Sales of subcompacts are up nearly 21 per cent and compacts are up 9.1 per cent. so if you are, like Toyota with top-selling subcompacts (Yaris) and compact (Corolla), you had a great year.
The car segments that lost ground so far in 2008: Sport (-16.3%), Mid-size (-4.8%), Luxury high-end (-12.7%) and Luxury Sport (-8.9 %).