June car sales rise 8% to record

June car sales rise 8% to record
Ford's performance is flat and GM drops, but strong Canadian dollar gives automakers pricing power and DaimlerChrysler logs 24.1% gain year over year

Auto sales in Canada rose to a record high in June, posting a gain of nearly 8 per cent year over year, in advance of the summer travel season.

General Motors of Canada was the only one of the major automakers to log a sales decline last month from a year earlier, according to the industry data compilation released yesterday by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.

In a note, Dennis DesRosiers described last month as the best June on record, and said it comes on the heels of record sales during May.

"The market is tracking at about 1.7 million units and we now have the possibility of record setting sales for the full year," he wrote.

Scotiabank economist Carlos Gomes said in a report that sales in June were above the annual 1.7 million figure for the third month in a row, and up from an average of 1.62 million in the first quarter.

"As in previous months, imported models led the way, soaring 15 per cent year-over-year and setting a record for June," said Gomes.

DaimlerChrysler logged a 24.1 per cent increase in sales while Ford rose 0.6 per cent. Honda and Toyota both logged double-digit increases.

GM sales were the only sour note, sliding 6.5 per cent in June, according to the DesRosiers data.

Overall sales were 169,200 units, up 7.6 per cent for June, and up 5.8 per cent for the first half of the year.

The surging Western Canadian economy helped boost the sales of light trucks, which jumped 11.9 per cent, while passenger cars increased by 4.2 per cent.

Market leader General Motors said it sold 41,860 units in June, as the company continued to back off from lease incentives and low-profit rental-fleet sales that inflated last year's numbers.

DaimlerChrysler Canada moved 22,029 units while Ford shifted 25,282 vehicles.

"Our outstanding June sales performance shows that Chrysler is clearly on a roll in Canada," said Reid Bigland, president and CEO of Chrysler Canada. "We are solidly in second place in the Canadian market and are seeing consistently strong retail sales, especially of our new, highly fuel-efficient vehicles like Dodge Caliber, Jeep Patriot, Jeep Compass and Chrysler Sebring."

DesRosiers said a number of positives are supporting the strong sales numbers for most automakers.

First, job growth in Canada is quite strong despite the loss of manufacturing jobs in Ontario, he said. And the resource economies in Western Canada are booming.

An examination of city by city sales last month show "there were about a dozen western cities that were up over 20 per cent over the same sales period from a year ago," DesRosiers said. "Now that's hot."

Another positive supporting sales is the strength of the Canadian dollar, which is giving many automakers some pricing power, he said.

Despite the strength in the market, Ford and Chrysler announced this week the re-introduction of big discounts and other incentives.

DesRosiers said the automakers launched the incentives because "they are trying to spruce up their performance." Among other auto companies, Toyota Canada sales were up 12 per cent to 17,256 units, including both Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

Honda Canada sold 12,737 Hondas and Acuras, up 17.9 per cent from June last year.

Its sales were fuelled by record Civic sales of 7,857 units, up 31 per cent, and by all-time record monthly sales of the Fit subcompact of 1,863 units, up 33 per cent.

Smaller car maker Nissan gained 34.8 per cent to 4,393 while Mazda rose 2 per cent to 8,884. Suzuki was up 25.5 per cent at 977.

South Korea's Hyundai recorded a 11.5 per cent increase to 6,801 and Kia jumped 13.2 per cent to 3,003.

Volkswagen was also ahead, up 29.2 per cent, to 2,924.

Higher end luxury vehicles were the only autos to see a major slide. Jaguar slipped 42 per cent to 112 while Porsche was down 1.6 per cent to 187. Yet BMW soared 43.2 per cent to 1,933.

source : www.thestar.com