Canadian dealers sold 125,300 new LVs in November, second-best for the month behind 2001’s 129,814 and on track to making 2012 the second-best year ever.
Fiat 500 one of November’s record-breakers.
With year-to-date sales through November totaling 1,563,318 units, Canadian new light-vehicle dealers seem all but assured of nailing down a second-place finish for the year, just behind the record 1,699,884 units delivered in 2001.
Although November’s volume of 125,300 LVs trailed that of the prior month by 10.9%, it marked a 3.7% improvement over prior year’s 120,837, with several brands posting record-November results.
Ford continued to lead the industry with November sales of 18,997 units, up 6.8% from17,951 a year ago, helped along by a 47% spike for the redesigned Escape that, along with the F150 and Transit Connect, posted best-ever Novembers.
Marking its 36th consecutive monthly increase over prior year, Chrysler delivered 16,880 LVs in November, a 6.8% improvement from 16,123 in like-2011.
Chrysler credited its strong performance to the popularity of its all-new Dodge Dart, along with record sales for the month of the Chrysler 200, Fiat 500 and Jeep Wrangler.
While General Motors saw a 9.3% jump in car deliveries over year-ago, a 7.3% drop in light-truck sales held total LV demand to 17,373, some 3.2% less than last year.
Asian makes posted a combined 4.7% increase over year-ago. Modest declines at Honda, Nissan and Toyota were more than offset by gains elsewhere, including November-record sales for Hyundai, Kia and Subaru.
Despite lower deliveries by BMW, Daimler, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo, European makes posted a 3.5% November gain compared with year-ago that largely was due to hikes of 29.6% at Audi and 16.0% at Volkswagen.
