Auto Service World
News   May 23, 2013   by CARS Magazine

P.E.I. leads national new vehicle sales, Hyundai Elantra most popular purchase in April

In a report by DeRosier Automotive Consultants, vehicle sales surged across the country in April, with every province contributing a measure of positive growth to a national-level year-over-year sales increase of 8.9 percent. Prince Edward Island was the countrys top performer last month with a light vehicle sales improvement of 29.8 percent, albeit on small volumes. Other double-digit performers included Newfoundland (+11.5%) and Nova Scotia (+10.4%).

Vehicle sales surged across the country in April, with every province contributing a measure of positive growth to a national-level year-over-year sales increase of 8.9 percent.

Western provinces Alberta (+20.9%), Saskatchewan (+24.6%) and Manitoba (+22.8%) charted impressive gains relative to April 2012. Alberta and Manitoba also lead the country in year-to-date gains, with the two prairie regions improving on last year’s YTD sales by 8.7 and 9.8 percent, respectively. Sales trends in British Columbia (+7.3%) fell shy of the national average, but outperformed the large Central Canadian markets.

The country’s largest markets achieved their best results so far in 2013 but underperformed relative to the national average. Ontario (+5.2%) and Quebec (+5.1%) showed a positive trend in April, helping to buoy still-negative YTD performances. For the overall Canadian market to improve on 2012 sales levels, both the Ontario and Quebec markets must continue their positive performances in the months to come.

Prince Edward Island was the country’s top performer last month with a light vehicle sales improvement of 29.8 percent, albeit on small volumes. Other double-digit performers included Newfoundland (+11.5%) and Nova Scotia (+10.4%).

From a brand perspective, the Hyundai Elantra once again proved Canada’s most popular passenger car in April, besting all comers with sales of 5,535 units (an improvement of 3.0% from April 2012). Honda’s popular Civic racked up 5,424 sales (-9.7%) for second place in the passenger car rankings. Competition between Civic and Elantra has intensified this year, with Hyundai’s compact car (+3.9% YTD) leading its Alliston-assembled rival by a scant 161 units on a year-to-date basis (16,872 Elantra units vs. 16,711 Civic units).
 
Ford’s F-Series large pickup continues as Canada’s favourite light truck and the top selling vehicle of any type. A total of 12,016 F-Series trucks were purchased in April, up 38.3 percent from last April and well in excess of sales totals amassed by second place Ram Pickup (+30.9% / 8,020 units) or third place GMC Sierra (+17.7% / 4,965 units). The high volume large pickup segment tied with one of the lowest volume segments, large luxury sport utility, to show the month’s highest year-over-year segment gains at 26.4 percent.
 
A host of other cars and trucks helped push the total market to an 8.9 percent year-over-year gain. Among those showing double-digit gains were the Chevrolet Cruze (+14.4%), Volkswagen Jetta (+17.4%), Ford Fusion (+20.8%), Ford Escape (+26.4%), Honda CR-V (+30.6%), Chevrolet Silverado (+10.0%), Toyota RAV4 (+36.1%) and Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (+16.5%).
 
The lion’s share of growth in April occurred in light truck segments (+16.3%). Passenger car segments (+1.0%) showed tepid results, with declines occurring among subcompact (-13.8%), intermediate (-2.5%) and luxury high (-32.9%) vehicles.
 
DeRosier’s Top Ten overview for April 2013:
Print this page

Related


Have your say:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*