Canada April Sales Up 11.4%

A month after relinquishing leadership, Chrysler is back on top in Canada, with April light-vehicles sales up 16.5% on a daily selling rate basis against an industry increase of 11.4%.

Canadian dealers actually delivered just 157,258 LVs last month, vs. 159,531 year-ago. But one less selling day this year netted them a DSR gain.

Chrysler credited record-high gasoline prices for driving buyers to more fuel-efficient vehicles, boosting industry cars sales 15.1% to 75,440 units from 74,121 last year.

Ford also credited demand for fuel-sipping models with boosting its April LV numbers 6.4% over prior-year. That included an 18.6% increase in cars, aided by gains of 132.3% for the Taurus, 56.4% for the Focus and 44.6% for the Mustang.

General Motors posted a 5.4% increase in the DSR, netting only 21,090 LV deliveries vs. 22,622 a year earlier. The lower volume resulted from a10.3% decline in car sales to 6,755 from 8,261, encompassing all of its brands except Buick, up 29.7%.

Combined deliveries for Chrysler, Ford and GM were up 9.4% for the month and 0.6% for January-April, while Asian-brands jumped 12.2% and 8.7%, respectively.

Sales of European brands rose 17.4% for the month and 11.1% for the year.

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