This year of auto market uncertainty could finally topple the Honda Civic from its perch as Canada’s most popular car for almost a quarter century. DesRosier’s latest new light vehicle report shows the Toyota Corolla ahead of the Civic, though both models show noticeable declines in sales. These numbers could possibly reflect the ongoing semiconductor shortage, resulting in limited availability of these perennially popular cars.
“The disparity in sales performance at the model, brand, and segment level will continue through to the end of the shortages” said Andrew King, Managing Partner at DAC. “Available new light vehicle supply is driving sales performance more than traditional consumer demand variables.”
According to the report, “Canadian new light vehicle sales have shown significant variation so far, and available supply has been unequal between brands and between specific models, leading to varied sales results and changes among the top sellers.” For light trucks, the Ford F-Series continued to hold first place despite a 4.7% sales decline with the second-place RAM Pickup series closing the large gap somewhat thanks to a 3.9% sales increase.
The sales number in the report show the Honda CR-V, occupying sixth place among light trucks, with a 45.4% sales decline for the year thus far, and the eighth place Jeep Wrangler showing a 33.1% sales increase.
For cars, behind the Corolla and Civic, third-place Hyundai Elantra tightened the gap with nearly flat (-0.8%) sales thus far. The Kia Rio and Chevrolet Spark made appearances on the top ten passenger car list, claiming ninth and tenth places respectively.
Performance remained mixed at the end of the third quarter for the large SUV segment, which noted an 11.8% increase in sales for the year, with the small pickup segment “not far off with an 11.5% increase”. The small van segment noted a 41.8% decline with the compact passenger car segment not faring much better with a 29.8% decline.
