Canada LV Sales Post 2014 Record

Canadian dealers moved a record 1,846,813 new cars and light trucks off their lots in 2014, surpassing by 6.1% their year-old benchmark of 1,740,125 units.

It was the first time in history Canadian LV sales finished north of 1.8 million units, outpacing even recent estimates for the year.

Booming demand pushed light-truck sales past the 1.0 million mark for the first time, to 1,091,313, a 10.8% gain on 2013’s then-record 984,510 deliveries.

At the same time, sales of 785,500 cars narrowly missed tying 2013’s 755,615, ranking only 20^th behind the record 1,133,103 units delivered in 1985.

Although Ford retained the top sales spot with 288,351 LVs, a 3.1% gain on 2013, a resurgent FCA (formerly Chrysler Group), posting an 11.4% increase to 288,059 units, came within 0.1% of besting its archrival.

Indeed, FCA again outsold Ford in light trucks, although Ford F-Series remained Canada’s best-selling vehicle and Ford sold 67% more cars than FCA.

Hyundai’s 93,774 deliveries allowed it to remain Canada’s top-selling car brand in 2014, despite a 2.1% dip from the prior year, while Toyota (excluding Scion) ranked second with 88,529 units.  

The industry’s record-busting finish came despite a slight softening in December LV sales compared with the record-November performance. But at 130,938 units, 2014 outpaced the prior year’s 112,900 vehicles by 11.3% on a daily selling rate basis.

Although December light-truck deliveries reached a record 83,166 units, beating the 78,471 units sold in like-1997, car sales languished at 47,772, ahead of the 42,949 sold in 2013, but well below the record 72,328 cars delivered in 1985.

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