Provincial and segment sales tell the story

Provincial sales figures for May indicate that the strongest province for relative growth is also the Canada’s smallest.

Prince Edward Island have analysts scratching their heads again with a jump of 74 per cent in May, good to push them to gain of 31.8 per cent year-to-date, according to totals released today by DesRosiers Automotive Consulting.

The Atlantic tide continues with New Brunswick and Newfoundland up on the year 14.7 and 11.4 per cent respectively.

Analyst Dennis DesRosiers says that despite a bad economy, Ontario is above the national average with sales up 10.5 percent YTD.

“It is a bit too general but the market east of Ontario is more positive than the market west of Ontario, although Quebec belies this and Quebec is a very important market for light vehicles in Canada,” he writes in the release.

“Quebec underperforming may explain by smaller entry level vehicle sales in Canada are having such a tough year.”

Segment sales released today show subcompact cars are still struggling with a dip of 25.3 per cent last month (down 21.2 per cent YTD). Compact cars were down 9.9 per cent for May.

“These are the two most energy efficient segments in Canada and have for more than a decade significantly out performed the market,” DesRosiers says. “I wonder if all this talk about fuel efficient regulations is back firing on our regulators with consumers heading to the showroom to load up on the larger vehicles before the Government forces compromises in their power train to achieve higher fuel efficiency standards.”
 
The Honda Civic has a slight lead over the Mazda3 as the best selling passenger car YTD (218 units) while the Ford F-Series pickup is the best selling vehicle over all and the best selling light truck.
 
Subvented lease residuals is keeping the luxury segments healthy with YTD sales of:
- High luxury up 25.8 per cent
- Small luxury up 13.2 per cent
- Large luxury SUVs up 63.8 per cent
- Intermediate luxury SUVs up 28.6 per cent
- Compact luxury SUVs up 31.3 per cent.

“The luxury market had been hard hit the last two years and with the “wealth effect” and great lease rates it appears to be on a very positive up tick this year.”