Canada Class 4-8 Sales Down 24.4% in April

Canada’s big-truck sales fell in April, with all weight classes recording year-over-year losses. Combined medium- and heavy-duty deliveries slid 24.4% on a daily basis, WardsAuto data shows.

Class 8 took the sharpest downturn, plummeting 30.6% to 1,955 units. The January-April tally came to 7,280 deliveries, 24.6% behind year-ago.

All brands in the group showed double-digit declines, except Western Star, up 4.7% with 207 deliveries. The greatest decreases were suffered by Peterbilt (-49.5%), Volvo (-46.1%) and Kenworth (-42.0%).

Medium-duty trucks came in 13.2% below prior-year with 1,353 units. The April figure brought the year-to-date total to 4,655, 3.2% greater than like-2015.

Class 7 was down the least, with a 7.6% drop to 418 orders. Group leader International posted a 24.1% gain to 201 units. Hino lost 21.9% of sales and Freightliner slipped 10.3%.

Class 6 deliveries totaled 98 units, 10.2% below prior-year. Hino nearly tripled its share, allowing it to take the top spot in the group with a 143.7% rise to 50 sales. Former leader International saw sales plunge 76.9%, as it held just 14.3% of the April tally.

Sales of Class 5 vehicles decreased 12.4% from last year, on sales of 689 units in April. Ford’s deliveries declined 27.0%. FCA and Hino posted gains of 5.5% and 6.5%, respectively. All the smaller-volume manufacturers sold less than prior-year.

Class 4 sales tumbled 30.1% to 148. Ford slipped 34.3%. Isuzu’s domestic line was down 52.8% while its imports improved 126.3%.

Over the first four months of 2016, medium- and heavy-duty truck sales totaled 11,935 units, 15.8% less than the same period in 2015.

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