New light vehicles left Canadian dealers’ lots at a slower pace in August than they did in July, but nevertheless established a new benchmark for the month.
Consumers bought an average of 6,585 new LVS each of 26 selling days in August for a total of 171,219 units, that was down 3.2% from July’s 6,800-a-day pace on volume of 176,810, but 12.0% ahead of the 158,815 vehicles bought a year earlier at the rate of 5,882 on each of 27 days.
A stronger economy and improved consumer outlook along with incentives were credited with powering sales to the new August record, erasing the month’s prior benchmark set in 2013.
This was especially true in the light-truck sector, where sales soared past the 100,000-unit mark for the first time to 100,851, a gain of 17.3% from the year-old August record of 89,308 units, despite running 2.0% under July’s tally.
Cars, on the other hand, ranked no better than 16th out of the last 29 years, although, at 70,368 units, they surpassed prior-year’s 69,473 by 5.1%. The all-time car sales record for August was set in 1985 at 91,765, at a time when they accounted for 76.1% of August LV sales compared with just 41.1% in 2014.
Ford, posting 27,531 deliveries, again held on to the top spot in August, besting No.2 Chrysler-Fiat’s 26,682 units by 3.4%, a slightly wider spread than the prior month when Ford held a 2.6% lead.
Still, Chrysler, at 200,080 units vs. 197,531, maintained a slim 1.3% lead over its archrival for the year.
General Motors remained third in the sales race for both August and the year, while Toyota-Lexus remained fourth.
