Canada LV Market Softens as Japanese Brands, GM Falter

Double-digit losses by Honda, Toyota and General Motors contributed mightily to July’s negative sales showing in Canada.

Dominant players in the market, the auto makers recorded a combined shortfall of 9,069 units, compared with like-2010.

Hyundai Elantra Canada’s best-selling car three straight months.

Canada’s light-vehicle deliveries slipped 1.4% on a 7,542-unit deficit.

Sales totaled 140,961, according to Ward’s data, which is adjusted for selling days.

Honda deliveries plummeted 21.2%, its fourth consecutive year-over-year decline, while Toyota marked its third straight month in the red with a 15.1% plunge.

Their performances largely were responsible for keeping Asia-based companies in negative sales territory. Combined, the 10 auto makers in the group recorded 58,295 deliveries for a 5.7% shortfall and a market-share decline of 2.1 points, compared with like-2010.

In addition, Nissan dipped 6.1% – a stark contrast to June when its sales soared 40.2% for the largest gain in the market.

Asia-based auto makers would have fared much worse if not for the Hyundai brand’s growing presence in the Canadian market. Its sales jumped 15.1% on 12,753 deliveries, good enough for fourth on the volume front, just ahead of Toyota.

Ford ranked first on 26,814 deliveries, followed by Chrysler and GM with 23,251 and 20,345, respectively.

July marked the third straight month Hyundai has finished fourth in total sales. The Hyundai Elantra, which attracted 4,768 buyers in July, also was Canada’s best-selling car for the third consecutive month.

Through the first seven months of this year, the Elantra has finished first four times, according to Ward’s.

Chrysler was July’s top performer among North American brands with an 8.6% sales hike, compared with like-2010. Ford sales ticked up 3.4%.

Though the 18.6% increase by GM’s Buick marque tied for the second-largest percentage-based improvement by any brand, compared with like-2010, the auto maker saw its total deliveries sink 11.6%.

But North American auto makers captured 49.9% of the market, a gain of 0.7 points.

Audi was the other brand to achieve an 18.6% sales jump.

Its mainstream-market stablemate, Volkswagen, was the leading gainer with a 21% hike in deliveries.

VW benefited from strong demand for the ’11 Jetta C-car.

July deliveries totaled 2,582, more than double like-2010’s 1,135.

Combined with BMW’s 18.5% sales surge, European auto makers recorded a 13.3% increase while accounting for 8.7% of the market, an uptick of 1.1 points.

Through July, Canadian-market sales were tracking 1.4% ahead of like-2010 on 946,984 total deliveries.

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