Canada Posts Second-Best November LV Sales

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 36^th 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.

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