Canada March 2019: Honda (+12%), Hyundai (+8.8%), Ford (+7.2%) defy 13th consecutive market drop

Honda CR-V sales soar 23.8% in Canada in March.

It’s a 13th consecutive month of year-on-year declines for new light vehicles in Canada at -1.5% in March to 184.150 units, leading to a Q1 volume down -2.8% to 418.615. According to local consultancy Desrosiers whose total figures are slightly lower due to the absence of some luxury brands such as Tesla, passenger cars drop -10.1% in March to 48.483 sales and 26.7% share vs. 28.9% a year ago just as light trucks edge up 0.6% to 133.317 and 73.3% share vs. 71.1% in March 2018. Year-to-date however both segments are down with passenger cars down -12.8% to 105.691 and 25.7% share vs. 28.2% and light trucks down -0.7% to 305.774 and 74.3% share vs. 71.8%.

Ford Motor (+7.2%) brilliantly reclaims the top of the groups ranking at 15.2% share, almost two percentage points above General Motors (-18.4%), in dire straits all while last year’s leader FCA (-11.3%) is knocked down to #3 both in March and YTD. Below Toyota Motor (-3%), Honda Motor (+11.5%), Hyundai-Kia (+7.2%) and Nissan Motor (+5.1%) are the only Top 10 groups in positive. Ford (+7.7%) is the best-selling brand in Canada by far at 14.8% share, followed by Toyota (-4.1%), with Honda (+12%), Dodge (+10.6%), Hyundai (+8.8%) and Kia (+4.1%) the only other gainers in the Top 12. Below, Tesla (+422.2%), Genesis (+82.5%), Mitsubishi (+42.4%), Cadillac (+18.1%) and Infiniti (+14.1%) also impress.

Model-wise, the Ford F-Series (+8.1%) ignores the surrounding gloom to extend its advantage over #2 Ram Pickup (-19.4%) to almost 5.000 units, just as the Honda Civic (+7.5%) and CR-V (+23.8%) round up the Top 4 in sensational fashion. The rest of the Top 10 is entirely in negative, with the GMC Sierra (-34.3%) and Chevrolet Silverado (-26%) the hardest hit. The Ford Taurus (+1317.7%), VW Jetta (+200%), Hyundai Kona (+196.9%), Ford Fusion (+169.8%), Honda Pilot (+68.9%), Ford Transit (+48.4%), Mitsubishi Outlander (+46.5%) Jeep Grand Cherokee (+45%) and Nissan Qashqai (+38.8%) post the largest gains in the remainder of the Top 50. The Tesla Model 3 (#18), tops new launches (<12 months) ahead of the Nissan Kicks (#32) and Chevrolet Blazer (#34) while the Ford Ranger remains shy for now at #113.

Previous month: Canada February 2019: Hyundai-Kia, Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V stay afloat in 12th straight market decline

One year ago: Canada March 2018: Top Four 100% Full-size pickups, market down 0.5%

Full March 2019 Top 15 groups, Top 36 brands and Top 275 models below.