Canada July 2019: Toyota (+17.2%), Ram (+34.1%) can’t prevent 17th consecutive market decline (-1.9%)

Toyota RAV4 sales surge 44.6% year-on-year in July.

The Canadian new light vehicle market endures a painful 17th consecutive month of year-on-year decline in July at -1.9% to an estimated 173.680 units. This brings the year-to-date tally down -4.4% to 1.163.393. According to Desrosiers Automotive whose totals are slightly lower due to the exclusion of small brands such as Tesla, passenger cars implode -16.8% year-on-year in July to just 44.122 and 25.4% share vs. 30.2% a year ago and are down an equally intimidating -15.3% YTD to 307.801 and 26.6% share vs. 29.9% over the same period in 2018. In contrast, light trucks are up a solid 5.8% to 129.411 and 74.6% share vs. 69.8% in July 2018 but down -0.3% YTD to 846.839 and 73.4% share vs. 70.1% last year. This month FCA follows General Motors in abandoning monthly sales reporting for Canada but unlike in the US Ford hasn’t dropped the ball just yet. As we have done for the US July 2019 report, we have combined industry estimates for overall FCA and GM July sales and will be sharing our exclusive estimates for all FCA and GM brands and models.

In this context, Ford Motor (-8.8%) retains the groups leadership despite a steep fall, edging past General Motor (-1.5%) while Toyota Motor surges 15.9% in third place. In fact, FCA (+17%) is the only other main group to score a double-digit gain in July and alongside Subaru (+2.3%) the only other Top 10 group in positive, when the VW Group (-12.7%), Nissan/Mitsubishi (-12.4%), Mazda (-5%), Honda Motor (-4.1%) and Hyundai-Kia (-2.8%) all get hit harder than the market. Brand-wise, Ford (-9.4%) easily stays on top despite being in difficulty, distancing a very dynamic Toyota (+17.2%), with Dodge (+41.3%), Ram (+34.1%) and Chevrolet (+10.4%) also in excellent shape in the Top 15. In fact all other Top 10 members see their sales thaw vs. July 2018, with GMC (-14.5%), Nissan (-11.9%) and Honda (-3.9%) suffering the most. Tesla (+44.4%), Chrysler (+25.4%) and Lincoln (+13.8%) shine among smaller brands.

In the models ranking, the Ford F-Series (-1.9%) matches the market to easily retain the top spot at almost 14.000 units, holding back the galloping Ram Pickup (+36.6%) and Toyota RAV4 (+44.1%) posting the largest gains in the Top 13. The Honda Civic (-18.1%) remains the best-selling passenger car at #4 overall, distancing the Chevrolet Silverado (+17.5%), Honda CR-V (+8.9%) and GMC Sierra (-2.7%) and selling 44% more than the #2 passenger car, the Toyota Corolla (+4.6%). Note the Hyundai Elantra (-5.8%) at #9, Mazda3 (-26.9%) at #17 and VW Golf (-19.4%) at #19 mean there are only 5 cars in the Canadian Top 25 in July! The Nissan Kicks (+69.1%), Subaru Crosstrek (+63.8%), Kia Forte (+36.2%), Hyundai Kona (+29.4%) and Toyota Sienna (+24.6%) also stand out while the Hyundai Palisade (#51) tops new launches above the Ford Ranger (#61), Mercedes A-Class (#85) and Jeep Gladiator (#117).

Previous month: Toyota RAV4 (+27.2%), Ford F-Series (+13.1%), Ram (+6.8%) survive in 16th straight market drop

One year ago: Canada July 2018: Hyundai-Kia soars, FCA freefalls in market down -3.5%

Full July 2019 Top 15 groups, Top 40 brands and Top 280 models below.