Auto analyst Dennis Desrosiers is out with his list of best-selling passenger vehicles in Canada for February, 2009. As always, small cars dominate the list. In fact, I think the top 10 is nothing but small cars. Is the Dodge Caliber (No. 8) a small car or a midsize? But perennial list-topper the Honda Civic has now dropped all the way to number 3. That's a bit of a shock.
Here's Desrosiers top five selling cars in Canada in February, with units each model sold during the month:
- Mazda – Mazda3 – 2,932
- Toyota – Corolla – 2,665
- Honda – Civic – 2,605 (sales are down 57.6 per cent for Feb 09 compared to Feb 08. Only the Toyota Yaris – down 49% year-over-year is worse)
- Hyundai – Accent – 2,178
- Hyundai – Elantra – 1,860 (sales up, year-over-year, 95.8%!)
General Motors, incidentally, does not have a single model in the top 10 sellers in February. Chrylser had one — the Caliber — and Ford's Focus came in at number 10.
OK, how about light trucks? It's all D-3 with Ford claiming three top 10 sellers, Chyrsler claiming two, and GM claiming two top 10 sellers.
- Ford F-Series – 4,581
- Dodge Caravan – 2,803
- Ford Escape – 2,162
- Dodge Ram – 1,594
- Hyundai Santa Fe – 1,503
And just so you can compare, Desrosiers has compiled a list of the best-selling passenger vehicles since 1990 in Canada. The Honda Civic tops that list. In fact, it's the only model that's sold more than 1 million units in Canada. Here's the top 10 best-sellers since 1990 and their units sold:
- Honda Civic – 1,080,235
- GM – Cavalier – 738,437
- Toyota – Corolla – 719,414
- GM – Sunbird/Sunfire – 596,915
- Honda – Accord – 518,984
- Toyota – Camry – 427,163
- Ford – Taurus – 379,930
- GM – Grand Am – 331,059
- Volkswagen – Jetta – 308,928
- Ford – Focus – 306,364
You'll notice that there is not a single Chrysler product in that top 10. The Neon was number 11 at 301,794. In fact, only one other Chrysler product, the Intrepid, made the top 30. GM had 7 in the top 30. Ford had six. Now, Chrysler might have more popular products in the selling pick-up/minivan category. The Dodge Ram and the Dodge Caravan have been very popular (if fading, now) models. Still, GM and Ford have also had strong truck and van products. Chrysler's failure to find a top-selling vehicle in the last 20 odd years may be part of the problem it's now facing …
And notice that the top 4 were all in the compact category. Canadians like their cars small. I have no idea what the top 30 in the U.S. are but everytime I've spoken to Dennis he's always said that mid-size or better makes for bigger sales down south. That has important implications for fuel efficiency regulations. Because of consumer preferences in Canada, our fleet is more fuel-efficient. Smaller cars use less gas. So if Canada decides to harmonize with U.S. fuel efficiency standards, we're not really doing much because we already are more fuel efficient. (Federal governments arrive at a fuel efficiency number by basically averaging out all the vehicles sold in a given year in a market. So, lowering a given jurisdiction's fuel efficiency is an easy matter because all you have to do is ban the gas-guzzlers.) If Canada wants to do more, then, to reduce GGE's from cars, it needs to go beyond the U.S. standards.
I don't think Canadians buy smaller cars than Americans out of preference–it's just that for some time we've been about 20% poorer on average than Amercans so we've bought cheaper–smaller–cars.
Mark
Ottawa
The '1990 to now' list is misleading in that it compares individual brand car sales across an entire 20 years. ALL of the foreign models shown have had continous production while ALL of the N.A. models have only had partial runs during the entire timeframe used.
It also, lightly noted, excludes the highly popular minivan as a separate category from “passenger” vehicle. Although what else is it?
I think that it would be more relevant to make the popularity comparison using average annual sales for all vehicles having a five year run.
Some good points CQ but let me suggest this: Do you think a carmaker would stop making a particular model if sales continued to be strong. The fact that many non D-3 makers continue to make models like the Corolla, Civic, etc. suggest that it is a very popular model with consumers. The relative absence of D-3 makers suggest that they come up with a hit every now and again — Chrysler's '300' for example — but those hits lack staying power that can anchor a manufacturer's sales line over time … Trying to come up with new 'hits' every few years is also costly in terms of design and factory re-toolings. So, again, if a mfr has a model that is popular over a 20 year period, it might indicate that that company has had to incur far less in design and re-tooling costs than its competitors.
Apparently so, I guess. Not being a car buff – or even a person who's ever been able to afford a 'new' car at that – I never know what the latest models are ever called. Or can readily tell one from another during the past ten or twelve years. 300?
Maybe the D-3 should also reconsider their own net marketing effect. I can only guess that all cars go through 'redesign stages', Civics included. Their attempts for new replacement 'hits' strategy probably doesn't help over the long-term as looking at this listing unfavourably suggests.
I really thought that Ford Focus is more popular than this, if I were to class it on a top ten it would definitely be in the first five positions in terms of price/quality. Toyota would also be in high regard on this top. But these are just my rankings, I own a Ford Focus Des Moines so I feel the need to feed my ego.