Canada 1st Quarter 2015: VW lifted by new Golf in record market

VW Golf sales are up a whopping 533% year-on-year in Canada.

* See the Top 15 groups, Top 35 brands & Top 260 models by clicking on the title *

Nothing seems to be able to stop the Canadian new light vehicle market from moving forward year after year: after record years in 2013 and 2014, sales are up a further 3% over the first quarter of 2015 to 368.927 registrations. FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) remains the most successful manufacturer in the country with sales up 2% to 61.825 deliveries. If in 2014 it lost the top spot to Ford Motor Co (now at 50.970) before the year came to an end, it doesn’t look like it will be the case in 2015, FCA being lifted by solid results from Ram (+15%), Chrysler (+12%) and Jeep (+10%).

Hyundai is now the #3 brand in Canada.

Displaying a polar opposite behaviour compared to the US, the Volkswagen Group is the largest year-on-year gainer with sales up a fantastic 28%, mainly due to its namesake brand (+38%) and Porsche (+28%) while Audi (+5%) is lagging behind. Ford is the best-selling brand in Canada despite sales down 5%, followed by Toyota (+5%) while Hyundai (+1%) overtakes both Honda (-4%) and Chevrolet (-7%) to land on the podium. Other great performers include GMC (+24%), Lexus (+21%), Lincoln (+23%) and Mini (-39%) while Fiat (-43%) is raising all kinds of alarm bells.

The Ford F-Series is headed towards another record year in Canada.

The Ford F-Series, although improving at half the rate as its immediate follower the Ram Pickup (+6% vs. +10%) is headed to another all-time record year. The Honda Civic is down a harsh 16% but retains the title of best-selling passenger car in Canada, ranking #3 overall. Excellent showings of the GMC Sierra (+14%), Chevrolet Silverado (+19%), Toyota RAV4 (+23%), Honda CR-V (+15%), Jeep Cherokee (+24%), Kia Sorento (+45%) and Hyundai Sonata (+51%) inside the Top 25.

The Nissan Micra has hit the mark with Canadian consumers.

But the award goes to the VW Golf, the main reason behind Volkswagen’s stunning performance: it is up more than 6-fold on its Q1 2014 score thanks to the new generation going on sale during the 2nd half of 2014, making its entrance among Canada’s 20 most popular nameplates at #19 – it was #107 a year ago! The Nissan Micra leads all-new nameplates by far at a shiny 36th place with 2.450 sales, followed by the Ford Transit, Chevrolet Colorado, Lexus NX, Acura TLX, GMC Canyon, Audi A3, Q3 and Mercedes GLA.

Full Q1 2015 Top 15 groups, Top 35 brands & Top 260 models vs. Full Q1 2014 figures below.