August sets another sales record.
It’s said that records are made to be broken, and that’s exactly what sales in Canada have been doing. According to figures compiled by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, overall sales in August were up by 7.920 percent compared with August 2013, an all-time record for the month and, by our count, the fifth monthly record this year. And almost a dozen auto brands are at or close to their all-time sales records for the month.
All in all, Canadians bought 171,560 new vehicles in August. Of that number, 70,939 were passenger cars, a minimal rise of 0.1 percent over August 2013, while 100,621 were light trucks, up 14.1 percent.
They’re interesting numbers considering that not all regions are moving forward. Some of the Western provinces are down slightly, and while Quebec is showing some improvement, it’s still a troubled market. The overall high numbers are primarily due to Ontario’s market returning to full force, and the West holding close to last year’s sales records.
The seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) tracked at 1.9 million units in August, which was slightly below July’s tracking, but still very strong. Year-to-date sales to the end of August came in at 1,256,649 units, an increase of 4.6 percent over the same period in 2013. We were expecting an increase of a point or two, so hitting almost 5 percent is spectacular.
Battle of the brands
Ford was the top seller in August with 27,969 units, a rise of 2.6 percent, followed by Chrysler/Fiat at 26,682 vehicles, up by 22.4 percent. Chrysler kept its year-to-date sales lead of 200,080 units, but Ford is getting closer with 199,950. General Motors sold 22,111 units in July, an increase of 4.8 percent, and bringing it to 164,732 for the first eight months of the year.
Three more automakers topped 10,000 vehicles for the month as well. Toyota sent out 16,953 units; Honda sold 14,063 vehicles; and Hyundai hit the board with 13,002 sold.
The Japanese automakers had their ups and downs in August. Among those on the positive side were Mazda, up 2.4 percent; Mitsubishi was up 48.9 percent; Nissan rose by 36.3 percent; Subaru was up by 10.5 percent; and Toyota rose by 5.4 percent. On the other side, Acura dropped by 11.8 percent; Honda was down 3.4 percent; Infiniti fell by 3.9 percent; and Lexus was down by 2.3 percent.
The primary German brands were up: Audi rose by 31.7 percent; BMW rose by 26.2 percent; Mercedes-Benz was up by 6.2 percent; Porsche rose by 65.9 percent, the highest gain of any automaker for the month; and Volkswagen was up 11.4 percent. However, Mini fell by 10.2 percent, while Smart was down by 30.5 percent.
The Korean automakers were on both sides, with Hyundai up 4.0 percent, while Kia dropped by 4.7 percent on sales of 7,153 vehicles.
Jaguar was up by 2.6 percent on sales of 118 cars, while Land Rover rose by 30.4 percent with 502 units. Volvo was down 29.3 percent on sales of 309 vehicles.
The domestic nameplates combined rose by 9.4 percent in August on sales of 76,762 units, while the import nameplates rose by 6.7 percent on sales of 94,798 units.
Top models
Individual model sales were tabulated for July, when the Honda Civic and Ford F-Series continued to lead in their respective categories. The Civic’s sales of 7,049 units in July put it ahead of the second-place Hyundai Elantra by 1,639 vehicles, while the F-Series’ July sales of 12,619 trucks had it ahead of the Ram pickup by 4,524 units. The Civic finished the month of July with a 16.2 percent increase over its sales in July 2013, while the F-Series went up by 24.4 percent.
The top ten best-selling cars in July, in order, were the Civic, Elantra, Toyota Corolla, Mazda3, Volkswagen Jetta, Chevrolet Cruze, Hyundai Accent, Hyundai Sonata, Ford Focus, and Honda Accord.
The truck list in July was made up of the F-Series, Ram pickup, Dodge Grand Caravan, Ford Escape, GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Silverado, Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Nissan Rogue, and Jeep Wrangler.
Of course the year isn’t over yet, and we’re looking forward to the fall and perhaps another set of broken records.