Canada October Sales Slip Again

The sizzling demand for new light vehicles in Canada may be starting to cool, as October deliveries slipped behind those of the prior year for a second consecutive month. And this time, even light trucks failed to measure up.

Although Canadian dealers delivered an average of 6,163 on each of the month’s 25 selling days, up 2.3% from prior-year’s 6,028-a-day rate, two fewer selling days, 25 vs. 27, held the month’s volume to a third-best 154,094, down from the record 162,744 units sold in like-2015.

Compared with the 6,937 units sold daily in September, when sales reached a second-best 173,415 units, October was down by 11.1%.

Even the red-hot light-truck segment fell to second place as October deliveries reached 101,302 units compared with the record 104809 sold a year earlier. While the month’s selling pace topped that of like-2015 by 4.4%, it fell 12.2% short of matching that of the previous month, when sales posted a September record of 115,338.

October car sales of 52,792 units ranked only 28^th out of the past 31 years, three notches below the 57,935 sold in a year earlier, and were no threat to the record 105,863 cars sold in October 1985.

Despite the slide, General Motors catapulted to the top spot in October LV sales, ahead of rivals Ford, the industry leader in September, and third-place Fiat Chrysler.

Sales in the first 10 months totaled a record 1,660,463 units, 2.5% ahead of like-2015’s 1,620,330 deliveries.

Despite the September-October slowdown, LV deliveries for the year are still on track to reach a record 1.9 million-plus units.

[email protected]