Ram’s Pickup also saw an uptick in sales since January thanks to 7,692 deliveries last month, which represented an identical 12.5-percent growth rate over the past two months, albeit an even more impressive 57.5-percent incline since March of 2020.
Another return to normalcy was Toyota’s RAV4, up into third place on our top-10 best-seller list in March, due to 7,372 units down Canada’s roads. This made for a massive 60.5-percent increase since January, plus previously unthinkable 156.7 percent YoY growth due to the strange times in which we live.
Following Toyota’s compact crossover SUV, were General Motors’ twinned pickup trucks, the GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado in fourth and fifth. With 6,001 deliveries in March, the former managed to grow its sales by 12.5 percent over the past two months, falling in lockstep with its direct competitors, while its YoY sales were up an impressive 99.4-percent. As for the Silverado, its 5,212 deliveries matched the Sierra and other full-size trucks for growth since January, but its YoY increase was “just” 83.2 percent. Collectively, the two GM trucks found 11,213 Canadian buyers last month, effectively making the automaker number one in truck sales, and therefore tops overall.
As usual, Honda’s CR-V was the second-most popular unibody vehicle sold in Canada during March. A total of 4,959 units made their way out of the brand’s namesake dealerships, which resulted in 33.4 percent growth since January, plus a 171.7-percent improvement since March of last year.
What might possibly be a more interesting shift was due to another Honda, the Civic, falling from eighth position last month to 10th place in March. While landing in last place amongst Canada’s top-10 is still better than most other vehicles on our new car market, Honda wouldn’t have enjoyed seeing the model’s arch-nemesis, Toyota’s Corolla, jump from that final position in February to seventh in March. A total of 3,596 sales of the latter made this happen, resulting in 86.8 percent month-over-month (MoM) growth, whereas Honda’s 3,291 deliveries only increased MoM sales by 52.1 percent, allowing the Corolla to sneak past. As for the two models’ YoY results, the Corolla was up by 71.2 percent and the Civic slightly better at 74.8 percent, which was, as you’ve learned by now, middling ground in Canada’s recovering auto industry.
Another story to watch is the battle between the often third-placed compact crossover SUV and now regularly first-place subcompact crossover contender, or Nissan’s Rogue versus Hyundai’s Kona. Over the past month, the Rogue slipped two places from seventh to ninth, with March sales of 3,318 units representing 12.5-percent growth. The Kona, on the other hand, has moved up a notch during the same timeframe, from ninth to eighth thanks to 3,402 deliveries resulting in a MoM increase of 65.3-percent. As for YoY sales improvements, the Kona upped its March tally by a shocking 270.0 percent, resulting in the highest yearly gain of any top-10 contender, thus making the Rogue’s “mere” 156.6-percent uptick seem downright pedestrian.