BRAND AWARENESS
Despite a moderate drop, Canadians bought two million new vehicles last year
Canada’s 10 best-selling automobile brands were responsible for nearly three-quarters of Canada’s new vehicle sales in 2018.
Eight of the 10 leaders sold fewer vehicles in 2018 than in 2017. Full-size pickup truck volume slid eight per cent last year, a 30,000-unit drop that accounts for more than half of the industry’s overall drop. But it was the passenger-car market, which experienced a 10 per cent loss of sales in 2018, that caused other toptier brands to struggle last year.
With automaker sales figures supplied by the Global Automakers of Canada, here’s a deeper look at Canada’s 10 leading auto brands.
10. KIA: 73,009, DOWN FIVE PER CENT
Following record sales performance in 2012, Kia’s Canadian volume began to drop, even as Canadian auto sales surged. But in 2017, Kia had almost returned to record highs. The company reversed course in 2018, harmed especially by a final third in which Kia lost nearly 4,000 sales.
9. MAZDA: 73,869, DOWN 0.3 PER CENT
As the bottom fell out of its passenger-car lineup, Mazda’s trio of crossovers effectively made up the difference in 2018, rising eight per cent, to 43,404 sales, or nearly 60 per cent of the brand’s volume. The Mazda3 nevertheless remained the company’s bestseller, albeit by the slightest of margins over the steadily gaining CX-5. Mazda has high hopes for the new 3, which will be available with allwheel drive when it launches later this year.
8. RAM: 89,562, DOWN 14 PER CENT
FCA’s Ram brand rises and falls on the strength of its pickup truck line, which generates 95 per cent of all Ram sales. In 2018, that meant the Ram half-ton and Ram heavy duty trucks’ 14 per cent drop resulted in a brand-wide 14 per cent drop. Ram pickup sales fell to a five-year low in 2018.
7. GMC: 94,241, DOWN FIVE PER CENT
As a purveyor of pickup trucks, SUVs, crossovers, commercial vans and absolutely no passenger cars, GMC is in a favourable position, given the market’s anti-car tendencies. But GMC was faced in 2018 with a nine-per cent dive in sales of its most popular product, the full-size Sierra pickup, which accounts for 60 per cent of all GMC sales in Canada. Its decline brought the brand down, despite rising Canyon, Savana, and Terrain sales.
6. HYUNDAI: 127,839, DOWN ONE PER CENT
Hyundai’s decline in 2018 was modest, but it dropped the brand’s Canadian volume to an eight-year low. Sales of the Accent, Elantra, Sonata, Veloster, Santa Fe Sport, Santa Fe XL, and Tucson all declined. But thanks to the new Kona, Hyundai managed to outpace the market as a whole.
5. NISSAN: 136,536, UP TWO PER CENT
Declines across much of Nissan’s car lineup, and even among popular utility vehicles, were more than countered by the popularity of Nissan’s newer models. The second-generation Leaf, for example, became something of a mainstream model in 2018, outselling both the Altima and Micra, with 5,735 units. Nissan added 4,362 Kicks sales and reported a 119 per cent increase in sales of the Qashqai, now Nissan’s second-best-selling model.
4. CHEVROLET: 164,016, DOWN FOUR PER CENT
Let down by a six per cent drop in sales of its best-selling model — the Silverado — GM Canada’s biggest brand reported a worse-than-average year-over-year drop last year. Yet 2018 was still Chevrolet’s second-best year of the past decade. This was due, in large part, to the brand’s bigger SUVs — Traverse, Tahoe, and Suburban — which combined for 12,899 sales in 2018, a 30 per cent increase over 2017.
3. HONDA: 175,042, DOWN ONE PER CENT
Honda’s Civic ended its 21st consecutive year as Canada’s best-selling car; it maintained its sales volume while the passenger-car market tanked. Honda nevertheless couldn’t quite keep pace with 2017’s record output, partly because of the slim availability of the CR-V for much of the year, limited availability of HR-Vs and Fits, and disappointing sales figures from the Pilot and Ridgeline. The Civic and CR-V, Canadian-built models, account for nearly three-quarters of the brand’s Canadian sales.
2. TOYOTA: 207,535, UP FOUR PER CENT
Toyota battled the headwinds to end the year with its best sales performance in a decade. Booming pickup sales, a nine per cent increase in sales of the RAV4 (which is now Canada’s three-time best-selling SUV), and improvements from the C-HR, 4Runner, Yaris, Prius, Camry, and Avalon contributed to Toyota’s uptick. As a result, the brand’s market share climbed from 9.8 per cent in 2017 to 10.5 in 2018.
1. FORD: 289,705, DOWN FOUR PER CENT
There’s no doubt Ford’s 19 per cent car-sales drop was a factor in the brand’s overall decline in 2018, but more importantly, Ford held onto its title of Canada’s best-selling automotive brand for a 10th consecutive year, despite a six per cent drop in sales of its F-series pickup truck line. The trucks are Canada’s best-selling vehicle for a 10th consecutive year, and produce half of the brand’s Canadian sales, even through the number slipped by nearly 10,000 units in 2018, a significant sum by any standard.