Best September on record for Canadian new car sales

Light vehicle sales in Canada continued to perform strongly in September. Sales were up from year ago levels by 4.2 percent to 149,092 units which, by a very wide margin, was an all-time record for the month.

This brought sales year to date to 1,350,756 units (up by 3.5 percent ) which also is an all-time record. What is somewhat surprising is that September 2012 had also been a record month. It is a lot easier to show significant improvements in the market when comparable data from previous years are weak. September had a very tough comparable month to beat, but blew past this quite easily.

The SAAR for the month was 1.794 million units – another record. With any sort of decent market performance during the last 3 months total sales in Canada should beat the all-time record of 1.703 million units from 2002. We are currently tracking at 30K units above this level.

There were a number of notable performers this month, particularly amongst the smaller and mid-sized brands. Jaguar was up 152.1 percent in September and has almost doubled sales this year selling 978 units compared to only 514 units YTD a year ago.  Sister company Land Rover was up by 54.3 percent in September and is now up 17.0 percent YTD to 3,641 units.

Subaru continues to have a gigantic year with sales up in September by 23.2 percent which brings their sales to date to 27,157 units an increase of 21.1 percent on the year. Porsche sales were up 13.3 percent in September and are now up by 23.5 percent on the year. Nissan/Infiniti continues to be one of the biggest turnaround stories of the year with sales up 39.0 percent for the month to 8,564 units and an increase of 6.3 percent year to date. Only a few months ago Nissan was down on year to date sales performance.

Ford continued to be the number one seller of light vehicles in Canada with sales up 10.0 percent well above the industry average for September.  September’s performance pretty well guarantees that Ford will hold the number one spot to the end of the year. Honda/Acura continues to outperform the market with sales up 8.2 percent in September which brings them to an 11.2 percent increase YTD.

Chrysler saw sales increase by 1.7 percent (somewhat below the industry average). General Motors saw sales decline by 2.6 percent and was at a 12.3 percent market share in September. The company delivered 18,270 vehicles in September 2013. Total GM sales were down 2.6 per cent for the month. On a selling-day adjusted basis, total GM sales were up 6 per cent and retail sales were up 8 per cent for the month.

"Retail customers are embracing the completely redesigned 2014 Impala, Chevrolet’s iconic flagship sedan," said John Roth, vice president, sales, service and marketing, General Motors of Canada. "Representing the 10th generation of one of the industry’s most enduring and popular nameplates, the Oshawa-built Impala has experienced a more than 35 per cent increase in retail sales for the year."

Toyota/Lexus underperformed the market with only a 2.6 percent increase in September and is up only 1.1 percent YTD. Both Korean companies, Hyundai and Kia, continue to underperform the overall market with Hyundai up by 2.6 percent and Kia actually down slight at -2.8 percent. Both companies have a tough comparison from last year to beat.

With sales of 5,701 new cars and light trucks, Volkswagen Canada celebrated the change in seasons with its 21st consecutive month of record results. The previous high water mark of 5,468 was set just last year. Year-to-date sales of 47,949 have surpassed last year’s (44,919) by 7%.

"The results so far this year have been very encouraging," stated Maria Stenstrom, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group Canada. "Our critically acclaimed lineup of vehicles set the standard for quality and value."

Last month, a total of 3,006 examples of the Jetta were sold. With a choice of five different engines, including the award-winning TDI Clean Diesel, a Turbocharged Hybrid, and an all-new 1.8L, turbocharged direct-injected powerplant, the Jetta offers drivers an unmatched variety of engines from which to choose.

Sales of the Tiguan compact sport utility also continue to set new records, with 634 rolling out the door in September.

www.desrosiers.ca