Canada: auto sales barely going up in March

Apr 03, 2014

While auto sales in the US had a higher than expected performance in March, the northern neighbor, Canada, only edged a positive result last month, growing its deliveries by 0.2 %.

While the US started to recover from the severe winter conditions mid March, Canada was still plagued by the harsh weather for much of the month, so the slight increase is actually a very good performance from the perspective that March 2013 saw record sales.

“Being up by a sliver isn’t shooting the lights out, but when put in the context of a never-ending winter and strong year-ago sales, then current sales levels should be applauded rather than scorned,” said Dennis DesRosiers of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants in a report. “Perhaps the biggest ongoing dynamic is the strength in the light truck market,” he added.

In March, overall Canadian sales amounted to 157,060 cars, up from 156,680 last year, with truck sales up 5.1% to 90,851 units and the car sales going the other way, dipping 5.7 % to 66,209 vehicles.

Chrysler Canada leads the market with 24,649 units for a 25 increase, while second best Ford managed 22,402 deliveries, dropping 10.7% from the same month last year. General Motors Canada took third place, with a 7.8 % growth to 21,790 units.

Source: Inautonews.com