Windsor-built minivan sets sales record in 2017

It wasn’t the best of years for FCA Canada, but the Windsor-built Chrysler Pacifica boasted record sales in both Canada and the United States, according to year-end numbers released Wednesday by automotive manufacturers.

For 2017 as a whole, Pacifica sales in Canada jumped 142 per cent — to 6,185 units — from the previous year, while in the United States, Pacifica sales increased 90 per cent over the same period, to 118,274 units.

And for the first time in Canadian history, overall domestic auto sales broke the 2 million mark, with 2017 representing the fifth consecutive year of record sales levels, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.

“It’s an all-time high for the industry in Canada — it speaks to the fact that companies are designing vehicles that are quite awesome,” said Mark Nantais of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association.

In the U.S., a slight overall sales decline put an end to an unprecedented seven-year expansion following the Great Recession of 2009.

Sales of the Dodge Caravan, also built in Windsor, saw 2017 sales dip nine per cent in Canada, to 46,933 units, and two per cent in the U.S., to 125,196 units.

FCA Canada saw its overall 2017 sales numbers dip four per cent, although the figure for the company’s top-selling Dodge Ram pickup jumped 10 per cent, to 98,465 units. General Motors saw a 13 per cent increase in its Canadian vehicle sales in 2017 over the previous year, while Ford enjoyed a 1.3 per cent bump.

Canadian vehicle sales were down just over one per cent in each of the last two months of 2017, according to DesRosiers, but it wasn’t enough to offset last year’s nine monthly sales records.

In what DesRosiers describes as “stunning,” passenger car sales in Canada were down last year by 3.4 per cent, to 639,823 units, the lowest level since 1964. But sales of light trucks, now boasting more than two-thirds of the new-vehicle market share, increased 8.7 per cent in 2017.

Along with the healthy boost in Pacifica sales numbers, FCA Canada also had an all-time record year for its Dodge Ram pickup trucks, with 2017 sales up 10 per cent, to 98,465 units, making it the second-highest selling vehicle in Canada last year. The Dodge Caravan was FCA’s No. 2 Canadian seller at 46,933 units in 2017, but that was down nine per cent from the 2016 figure.

Ford, the Canadian automotive sales leader for eight of the last nine years (only outdone by FCA in 2015), sold 308,474 units in 2017, according to DesRosiers.

“What a banner year for the industry,” said David Adams, president of the Global Automakers of Canada, representing 15 auto companies domiciled outside of Canada and the United States.

Pacifica, winner of dozens of prestigious industry and consumer automotive awards, bucked the year-end sales slump experienced by many vehicle brands and recorded its best December ever.

Nantais, who grew up in Windsor, said it’s gratifying to see vehicle sales continue their Canadian climb since the industry experienced its “deepest trough” during the economic crisis of eight years ago.

“This is a real success story,” he said of the two-million sales mark. Purchasers have more choices today, with vehicles that are affordable, loaded with technology, safer and cleaner, he added.

Canada’s auto sector accounts for about 130,000 direct manufacturing jobs in assembly and parts production and a further approximately 500,000 indirect jobs, said Nantais.

Once the American market starts levelling off, “we’re usually not far behind,” he said.

“Things can’t go up forever,” said Nantais, who doesn’t foresee another record year in vehicle sales in 2018. “But we’re still going to have a pretty strong year ahead.”