Once again Canadian consumers drove home a record number of new light trucks in March, extending a string of monthly sales benchmarks that stretch back 27 months to January 2014. That was enough to bring total LV deliveries to a March record, the industry’s 11th in 15 months.
Canadian dealers sold 174,758 new LVs in March, an average of 6,722 on each of 26 selling days. That was up 5.0% from the 6,399 sold each of 25 days in the same month last year when deliveries totaled 159,982.
The market again was bolstered by sales of a record 113,042 light trucks that surpassed by 12.7% the 96,460 units delivered a year earlier.
On the other hand, although car sales rose a dramatic 46.8% from February, they remained at a near-all-time low in March, falling 6.6% to 61,716 from 63,522 units a year ago, the second-lowest report for the month in 31 years. Only the 55,419 cars sold in March 1996 were lower.
Thanks to an 18.7% year-over-year gain, Ford overtook Fiat Chrysler for market leadership in March, albeit by a scant 298 vehicles, although FCA retains a robust lead for the quarter.
Much of Ford’s rise was due to a 28.9% increase in sales of F-Series models, accompanied by gains of 260.8% for the revamped Edge.
At the same time, General Motors’ March LV deliveries posted a 12.0% increase compared with the prior year, while fourth-place Toyota saw a 9.3% gain.
Industry sales in the first quarter totaled 401,770 units, up 9.2% from 367,791 in the first three months of 2015, with light-truck sales rising 17.0% compared with a 3.5% decline in car deliveries.
