Key trends emerging from September’s Canadian automotive sales

Canada’s major automotive manufactures have revealed a mixed bag of sales figures for September 2016, figures which could identify some changing market trends.

The major area of interest lies in the fortunes of Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler and their respective sales of pickup trucks. While Ford and General Motors reported higher overall vehicle sales, boosted by pickup truck performance, Fiat Chrysler saw a sizeable 18 percent drop. This is down to poor sales of Ram trucks, which fell by 23 percent to little over 6,500 units.

Two key trends appear to be a move away from heavy to light pickup trucks, which are also outperforming sales of passenger cars which saw a steep decline in September.

Fiat Chrysler has suffered the most as overall auto sales slumped from 23,979 in August to 19,639 in September. Ford sold 30,170 vehicles, an increase of 6.9 percent, driven by a 21 percent hike in F-Series pickup sales, which pulled in 15,659 sales, more than half the company’s overall output.

However, these fortunes appear to reverse in the United States. Fiat Chrysler sold 29 percent more Ram 1500 pickups during September, while Ford sold three percent fewer F-Series trucks.

General Motors said its Canadian September numbers were its strongest since 2008, selling 25,466 vehicles. Chevrolet also fared well, with sales up five percent, helped by growth in Chevrolet crossovers and a 58 percent jump in sales of the Colorado pickup truck. The GMC Canyon, another pickup, saw sales jump 39 percent.

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