Canada LV Sales Set July Record

Thanks to record light-truck sales, new light-vehicle deliveries in Canada hit a July high of 158,388 units, or 6,336 on each of 25 selling days.

That eclipsed the month’s prior peak of 154,661 LVs (5,949 daily), set in 2005 when the month had 26 selling days.

Compared with the 6,162 units sold each of 24 selling days last year, on volume of 147,879, July’s LV tally was up 2.8%.

Still, that represented a 3.8% decline compared with the 171,160 LVs delivered in June, which also had 26 selling days, due at least in part to shrinking inventories of some popular models.

Canada light-truck deliveries hit a July record of 88,880 units, edging past the prior peak of 85,416 set just last year, when there was one less selling day. On a daily-rate basis, light-truck sales actually trailed year-ago by 0.1%.

Car sales totaling 69,508 units bested year-ago’s 62,463 by 6.8%, but posed no threat to the record 99,680 units delivered in July 1986.

Ford lost monthly sales leadership, at least temporarily, as its LV sales volume fell 14.7% from year-ago. Rival Chrysler nabbed first place on sales of 26,066 vehicles, a gain of 4.0% on like-2012.

Ford remained on top for the year, with 169,083 units to Chrysler’s 164,621, although the gap is significantly smaller than it was year ago when Ford led 167,881 to 153,516.

Despite a 5.5% decline, General Motors hung onto third position in the July LV sales derby, staying ahead of Toyota, which posted a 7.6% year-on-year gain.

LV sales for the year remain on track to set a new record, according to analysts, some of whom are eying a 1.17 million-unit tally for entire 2013.

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