The now 17-month string of new-vehicle sales declines in Canada hasn’t been broken, but July featured an upturn of sorts in that the decline of just 1.0%, from the same month in 2018, was the lowest so far this year.
A total of 173,533 vehicles were sold in July, bringing year-to-date sales to 1,153, 640, down 4.8% and nearly 60,000 units from last year but still the fourth-best year in history, at this juncture.
Dennis DesRosiers, of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC), labeled the results “a welcome change of pace given recent performance.” And David Adams, president of Global Automakers of Canada, noted: “if sales at the end of the year end up down 5% from last year, it will still be a very successful sales year by historical standards.” He added, “It wasn’t that many years ago that dealers and manufacturers would give their eye teeth for a sales year of 1.8+ million units.”
Supporting that perspective, the SAAR (Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Sales Rate) for July, published by DAC continued to hover in the range of 1.9-million, which suggests some stability in the market.
That said, a majority of the brands suffered declines for the month, including significant losses for several of the major players. And the loss of market share for passenger cars continued unabated as light trucks, including utility vehicles, claimed 73.4% of the market to cars’ 26.6% — a 3.3% slide for the latter from a year ago.
In summary, DesRosiers said: “As the market exits the hot summer selling season, a decline is looking more and more likely for year end.”
Tighter at the top
Ford was one of the major brands to record a setback in July, with sales of 25,428 units down 8.8% from a year ago. As a result, cumulative sales of 179,631 units are 2.1% below last year’s numbers at this time but, in a market that is down even more, the Blue Oval’s market share is up 0.5% to 15.6%
General Motors’ estimated July sales weren’t far behind, with 25,200 units sold — down just 0.1% from last July. Year-to-date sales of 158,103 vehicles are off by 12.2%, pulling market share down by 1.2% to 13.7% — still enough to keep GM securely in second place.
Toyota edged past FCA to claim third place once again in July, with 19,764 vehicles sold — a 17.2% increase from 2018. As a result, Toyota’s YTD sales are up by 5.3%, to 127,811 and its market share has grown by 1.1% to 11.1% — the biggest increase in the industry. Toyota still lags behind FCA on cumulative sales, however, leaving it in fourth place on the year so far.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles ranked fourth on the month, in spite of an 18.9% sales increase to 18,606 units in July. FCA remains third in the year-to-date rankings with 136,352 sales, down 9.4% from a year ago, which has reduced its market share by 0.6% to 11.8%.
Cumulatively, the Detroit Three’s sales were up by 0.7% in July, outpacing the market as a whole.
Fifth-place Honda’s July numbers lagged slightly behind the market with sales of 16,048 vehicle off 3.9% from a year ago. Year-to-date sales were off 3.9% as well, at 103,346 units, but its market share climbed a tenth to 9.0%.
Hyundai solidifies sixth
While Hyundai has claimed sixth place in sales for several (individual) months, it hadn’t overcome Nissan’s early lead to lock down that place in cumulative sales — until now. Although Hyundai’s July sales were down 3.8% from a year ago to 13,046 units, they pushed the Korean brand’s YTD total to 77,966 units — an increase of 4.2% and enough to surpass Nissan for sixth place overall. That performance also bumped market share by 0.6% to 6.8% — the second-biggest share increase in the industry.
Nissan ranked seventh in sales for the month, with 10,215 sales, a decline of 11.9% from July 2018. That stumble also put it into seventh place, behind Hyundai, for the year-to-date, with sales of 76,164 vehicles off by 7.3%, cutting Nissan’s market share back by 0.2% from a year ago, to 6.6%.
Kia maintained eighth place for the month with 8,005 sales, a decline of just 1.2% from a year ago. It’s in eighth place YTD as well, with sales of 46,266 units up by 2.9% year-over-year and a solid 0.3% gain in market share to 4.0%.
Mazda once again claimed ninth place for the month with 6,631 vehicles sold, although that represented a 5.0% decline from last July. While it is catching up to VW on year-to-date sales, Mazda remains in 10th-place on that count with 39,166 cumulative sales — down by 14.2% from 2018. As a result, the Japanese brand has given up 0.4% in market share, to 3.4%.
Volkswagen again ranked 10th in July sales with 6,305 vehicles sold, a decline of 17.0% from a year ago. In addition, the German brand is now just 38 units ahead of Mazda in the YTD fight for ninth, with 39,204 units sold. Still, that’s only a 3.7% decline in a market that’s down slightly more, so market share has remained stable at 3.4%.
Subaru, in 11th-place, not only outpaced the market but made an absolute 2.3% sales gain in July, selling 5,159 vehicles. Year-to-date, Subaru sales are down just 1.1%, resulting in a 0.1% bump in market to 2.8%.
Mercedes-Benz retained 12th-place and premium-brand leadership for the month and year-to-date, ahead of BMW and Audi in that order.
Winners and losers
On a percentage basis, the biggest gainers in July were FCA (+18.9%), Toyota (+17.2%), Genesis (+5.2%). Lexus (+3.8%) and Subaru (+2.3%).
The biggest losers, in percentage terms, were Maserati (-30.2%), Infiniti (-24.8%), Smart (-19.4%), Jaguar (-19.1%) and Volkswagen (-17.0%).
It should be noted that the total market sales figures reported here are now estimated by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC), given General Motors’ recent decision to report actual sales only on a quarterly basis. These estimated monthly results are reconciled quarterly to reflect actual sales when GM reports officially.
