Bubble. Burst. Boom... and bust. Canada's auto sales have finally tanked after a December that made it look as though, well... auto sales would tank. There were two car companies in the United States last month to manage improved sales compared with January of '08. Seven automakers managed that feat in Canada.
There were no drastic or dramatic or disastrous declines like Chrysler's U.S. performance, but some sting. General Motors, as a whole, hung on to its crown. As south of the border, Hyundai is the true winner. See why in the Numbers below.
Helping to explain Jaguar's increase in sales to forty? A terrible January of 2008. Surprising is the smart/Mini decline. Honda, Mazda, and Nissan: I hardly knew ye. Mercedes makes the other luxury producers look deficient. Overall, light vehicle sales in Canada were off 25.3%. Trucks (-19.3%) fared far better than cars (-30.9%). Putting the 76,900 vehicles sales in context is 2002's January - 110,300 vehicles sold.
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General Motors: -46.6% to 14,092
Chrysler: -33.7% to 11,170
Ford: -14.2% to 10,901
Toyota: +0.3% to 9,681
Honda: -38.7% to 6,460
Hyundai: +18.9% to 4,607
Mazda: -12.3% to 4,150
Nissan: -14.7% to 3,867
Volkswagen: -1.6% to 1,893
Kia: +0.9% to 1,825
Subaru: -1.3% to 1,186
Mercedes-Benz: +10.3% to 1,178
Mitsubishi: +9.1% to 1,099
Acura: -26.1% to 1,099
BMW: -20.1% to 880
Suzuki: +4.3% to 602
Lexus: -35.1% to 588
Infiniti: -27.1% to 392
Audi: -32.3% to 388
Volvo: -42.9% to 286
Land Rover: -28.9% to 145
smart: -61.9% to 90
Porsche: -28.5% to 88
Mini: -43.9% to 88
Saab: -47.6% to 55
Jaguar: +11.2% to 40
