CarCostCanada's May 2020 Top 10 Vehicles Sold Report

The F-Series saw its June 2020 sales rise to 11,739 units since May, and while this is a positive sign when comparing deliveries to those over the past two months, the model’s year-over-year (YoY) comparison shows a decrease of 23.7 percent. Likewise, the Ram Pickup grew June sales to 7,137 units, but when compared to the same month in 2019 its more recent tally represented a downturn of 25.4 percent.

Interestingly, GMC’s Sierra and Chevrolet’s Silverado not only grew their June sales to 5,409 and 5,199 deliveries respectively, but the two trucks saw last month’s YoY purchases increase as well, by a significant 75.1 and 65.0 percent apiece, while as usual, sales of the two nearly identical (from their grilles rearward) full-size pickups, which reached a sizeable 10,608 examples, would have combined for second place overall if categorized by automaker instead of brand.

While the top four best-sellers appeared steady as a rock, the bottom six of June’s top-10 scrambled much more for position than usual, resulting in three being bumped off the list by two regular visitors and one all-new competitor from a category that has rarely if ever found its way into the upper echelons of popularity.

Starting with number five, Honda’s Civic has moved up one position to once again replace Toyota’s RAV4, thanks to 5,095 deliveries resulting in 61.3 percent growth MoM, albeit 16.0 percent fewer sales than June of 2019.

Quite a bit further behind was Mazda’s CX-5 with 2,909 new buyers last month, and while quite a bit less than the Civic, it was the first time this year that the Japanese brand has made Canada’s top-10. This might seem like reason enough for Mazda to celebrate on its own, but the compact SUV’s strong June sales also represented a 13.7-percent increase of monthly growth YoY.

Hyundai’s Kona crossover not only achieved the top-10 for the first time in June, with a convincing seventh-placement in the rankings, but it’s also the first subcompact crossover SUV to do so far as long as we can remember. Its deliveries totalled 2,762 units last month, which also meant that its sales grew by 22.5 percent YoY.

June wasn’t a stellar month for Toyota’s usual top-5 RAV4, with a rather lacklustre eighth-placement due to just 2,756 deliveries that represented a decline of 15.7 percent MoM and 57.7 percent YoY, and to rub salt into the wound the Japanese brand’s chief rival in Canada, Hyundai, managed to sneak two of its best-sellers into last month’s top-10.

The South Korean brand’s Elantra compact sedan moved up a single place to ninth overall in June, making room for its Tucson compact SUV, with 2,735 and 2,529 units apiece, but it wasn’t all singing and dancing at 75 Frontenac Drive, however, because this represented a temporary YoY slowdown of 30.1 and 20.8 percent respectively.

Of course, none of these numbers are normal for June activity, although the positive progression we’re now seeing is a good sign of the auto industry bouncing back from all the lockdowns that caused such significant mayhem over the past few months. ---------- May 2020  After two of the most challenging months in recent memory, Canada’s auto sector is seeing some light at the end of a dark tunnel, now that our temporarily shuttered economy is starting to reopen. Ford’s almost always best-selling F-Series more than doubled its deliveries since the doldrums of April, with May sales of 11,180 units, which while still down 29.6 percent year-over-year (YoY) from May 2019, represents growth of 122.2 percent month-over-month (MoM).

Similarly, Canada’s second-most popular Ram Pickup found 6,797 new customers last month, which while 29.9 percent off of its comparative May 2019 high, was nevertheless an identical 122.2-percent more successful in May 2020 than it was the month prior.

Following its own trend, General Motors’ two full-size pickup trucks, the GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado, occupied third and fourth on Canada’s new vehicle sales chart for May, with 5,151 and 4,951 deliveries apiece, or 10,102 collective sales, which would have placed these badge-engineered cousins in second if categorized by automaker instead of brand, but alas they’re not able to benefit from any potential marketing opportunities that might arise from runner-up status. Either way, the Sierra actually grew its YoY market share by 3.2 percent, whereas the Silverado had 3.7 percent fewer buyers in May of 2020 than it did in the same a year earlier. Like the others, the two trucks’ MoM sales-upsurge was much greater, with both the Sierra and Silverado increasing their deliveries by (can you guess?) 122.2 percent.

If consistency is the recipe for Canada’s new vehicle sales success, having Toyota’s RAV4 place fifth amongst our identically organized top-five finishers once again is a good sign. Altogether, the brand sold 3,268 RAV4s last month, meaning in fact that it only found 51.9 percent of such new buyers YoY, but its MoM sales increased by 128.2 percent.

While Honda had even less to smile about last month than Toyota, they might be breathing a sigh of relief to see the CR-V back in the top-10. As of May 2020, the compact crossover SUV sits in seventh place, just below the Civic sedan, which has once again supplanted Toyota’s now eight-placed Corolla as the most popular car in Canada, May’s numbers read 3,159 for the six-place Civic, 3,090 for the CR-V, and 2,588 for the Corolla, reflecting a YoY slowdown of 54.6-, 46.8- and 58.5-percent respectively. On the positive, MoM gains were an interstellar 242.2 percent (that’s not a typo) for the Civic, and 178.9 percent for the Corolla (April sales results were not available for the HR-V at the time of writing), each of which point the car market in the right direction.

Nissan’s Rogue was pushed off of May’s top-10 list by its CR-V rival, but Ford’s Escape and Hyundai’s Elantra remained, albeit relegated from eighth and ninth to ninth and 10th, with 1,943 and 1,752 sales apiece. This resulted in respective YoY erosion of 59.8 and 55.6 percent, but then again, the two cars saw improvements of 122.3 and 117.1 percent respectively since April.