Low gas prices fuel sales of trucks and luxury crossovers
Some things are true in life, like when gas prices fall, people start buying big trucks again. So since Canadians have been paying less than a dollar a litre for fuel, Canadians have responded by buying pickups in incredible numbers.
It comes as no surprise that the Ford F-150 remains the sales king, especially now that the aluminum-intensive 2015 model is becoming more readily available on dealer lots. The company sold 25,782 of its F-Series family through three months of the year, an almost six percent increase over last year. The V6 and EcoBoost-heavy lineup, which Ford promises drinks less fuel than its rivals, will almost certainly take yet another annual sales crown in nine months’ time.
But if there’s anyone feeling bullish about knocking Ford off, it’s the folks at Ram. Their group of regular and heavy-duty pickups sold 20,647 units, a 12.4-percent increase year over year and good for second overall. There’s plenty of appeal, too, with everything from a class-exclusive light-duty diesel option and efficient gas V6 to the Hemi V8s and finally the “big-six” turbodiesel monsters in the 2500 and 3500.
Third place overall, and first in cars, goes to the familiar Honda Civic, although not without some trouble. The Civic Sedan and Coupe managed 10,458 sales in Q1, but with everyone apparently buying pickups, that was a big 15.7-percent drop from 2014. While both were heavily refreshed in the last two years, there is an all-new Civic coming as a 2016 model that was previewed at New York in concept form, including a real turbocharged Type-R for the first time too.
The GMC Sierra picked up a number of places, and nearly turfed the Civic out of third place with 10,386 sales, a huge 14.2-percent increase from last year. The same story and reasoning behind the other strong performances: cheap fuel, low interest rates and strong manufacturer incentives across the board. Sierra also offers its line of luxed-up Denali models, made even more popular now that Cadillac no longer makes the Escalade EXT.
Since Canadians still appreciate our minivans, it’s important that the minivan originator – and one still built exclusively in Canada – continues doing well. The Dodge Grand Caravan retains its status as an in-class bestseller, but also fifth-place overall in Q1 with 10,257 sold. The value of such a large hunk of metal with a standard class-leading V6 for power, a modern transmission and a regularly discounted sub-$20,000 price is easy to understand.
While several of Hyundai’s models are starting to look their age, the Elantra still looks amazingly fresh. Although better to drive and thriftier since a recent refresh, the overall shape certainly keeps pulling in customers, enough for sixth place overall this year. However, with only 9,556, sold since January, that total is down by nearly eight percent. Could be the sign of impending cracks in a compact favourite?
The seventh-placed Toyota Corolla appears to be poised to take advantage of any sign of weakness from the Hyundai. While its 9,027 sales in Q1 were down marginally from 2014, that’s only a 1.5-percent reduction, certainly the smallest loss of any car in the top 20. As an aside, the 13th-placed Volkswagen Jetta, 19th-placed Golf and 27th-placed Nissan Sentra were the only cars in the top 30 to actually gain sales year over year…
Eighth place and we’re back to pickups, this time the Chevrolet Silverado. Available in both light duty and heavy duty models, the big Chev posted 8,767 sales, an increase of nearly 20 percent. Lumped together with GMC’s Sierra there’s 19,153, which still isn’t enough to push the pair of GM pickups ahead of the Ram.
Another Ford continues its run as top-selling SUV in Canada with a total of 8,358 Escapes sold during the start of 2015, although that’s sharply down from last year by 8.5 percent. Perhaps some of that comes from it being well into its third model year with no real alterations in the pipe. It’s been a money-maker for Ford and reasonably reliable now, but could potentially lose its title to another.
Who would do that? The 10th-placed Toyota RAV4, that’s who. The pair are darn-near tied with the RAV4 garnering 8,212 sales, a huge 22.8-percent increase from last year, and one of the brightest spots on the list. Even better news? There’s a revised and facelifted RAV4 coming for model-year 2016 and will finally be available as a hybrid. Fresh off a redesign and a big Autos.ca Comparison win, the 11th-placed Honda CR-V had a similar 14.5-percent increase, although much farther behind with only 7,748 units sold. Either way, the pressure is on Ford.
Mazda doesn’t seem able to catch a break here. Its excellent Mazda3 offers best-in-class handling and exceptional efficiency with its range of Skyactiv gas engines. But perhaps it’s not plain enough? Too curvy? Too much fun? Practicality compromises? Genuinely curious here, because its 11-percent slide year-over-year leaves Q1 sales at 7,377. It’s solidly outside the top 10 overall when it came close to knocking the Civic off its perch in years past…
This report, we also wanted to take a closer look at some of the winners in the hot luxury SUV market in Canada, which doesn’t make the top 10 overall, but still presents an interesting sales race of its own. Just about every manufacturer has at least a couple offerings. Heck, Mercedes-Benz has six and BMW has five examples of stilted off-road wagons.
The same attributes that make compact and mid-size SUVs so attractive to customers, like all-wheel drive, extra ground clearance, ease of entry and flexible cargo room – are equally true for those with premium badges. But those luxury badges can also double or triple the price compared with a ‘regular’ brand, especially when digging into the tempting options list.
So we figured taking a look at how the strongest players in the luxury SUV segment are doing after one of the most brutal winters around.
The Lexus RX continued its long domination of the segment. Much like in 2014, there were almost 1,400 examples sold during the first three months of the year. That’s even more impressive because the current RX is quite old still uses a 280-horsepower V6 or more potent hybrid, and a pretty maddening infotainment system.
Customers obviously overlook those things, although with an all-new fourth-generation RX recently making its debut in New York, whether customers embrace the more radical styling is another question. Perhaps Lexus’s new compact NX will be a bellwether? If so, I’d double down since the NX pulled in 1,079 sales in those first few months, ahead of plenty other well-established players, and well into the top 10 overall.
Audi, which arrived within 50 units of the Lexus RX’s first place in 2014 held a similar runner-up position so far this year, selling 1,370 of its various Q5 models, a mere 30 behind. The Q5 is just as ubiquitous a sight as the RX, although that’s helped by the five different engine choices to the RX’s two. There is a turbo-four, hybrid-turbo-four, turbodiesel V6, and two supercharged V6s in two different states of tune, including over 350 horsepower in the range-topping SQ5.
The Q5 has a new mini-me, the Q3, which with 676 sales topped the fresh German subcompact utes showdown against the Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class with 605 sales and the ‘desperately in need of an update BMW X1 with 557 sales. Buick is a brand aspiring to earn its luxury stripes, but there is no question its Encore is popular with customers, topping any of the Germans with 854 so far this year.
Both Mercedes-Benz and Lexus like to fight over who was the ‘first’ to offer a luxury-branded SUV as both arrived within months of each other back in the late ‘90s. And even though it’s being renamed near the end of the year as the GLE-Class, the stalwart Mercedes-Benz ML-Class just topped 1,300 units this quarter, proving it is as popular as ever. A well-earned podium place.
The 3.0L turbodiesel V6 accounts for about three quarters of the ML-Class sales in Canada, and even more for the larger GL-Class, which kicked in another 505 units for the three-pointed star. The three-row GL will become the GLS under the company’s latest naming system, although whether it will get just a GLE-like facelift or be a more thorough redesign remains to be seen.
In more Mercedes news, the GLK-Class proved it still has the chops, pulling in 1,065 sales so far this year. Both the 2.3L turbodiesel and aggressive shape help lots here. Like the other Benz SUVs, the GLK will be renamed the GLC to reflect its relative position, and as an all-new vehicle using the award-winning C-Class as its base.
Folks at Acura must be thanking their lucky stars that the RDX and MDX are so popular because those are the only products that are selling right now. The smaller RDX took the lion’s share during the first quarter with a fourth-placed performance of 1,261 units. Since all RDX’s come with the same Honda-sourced 3.5L engine, six-speed transmission and AWD system, it’s only a choice of adding extra in-car technology and which colour – or non-colour more accurately – you’d prefer.
The MDX is several places behind its smaller sibling, although being just two sales short of hitting 1,000 units this quarter is impressive for a large three-row SUV in Canada. There’s plenty of shared bits both in the cabin and under the skin, including the same V6, power output and more. The MDX does shine on longer journeys, though, thanks to the longer wheelbase and active safety stuff, like active lane keep and more, just not available on the RDX.
BMW had an excellent year for its mainline X5 model, turning 1,062 units in the first three months and nearly tied with the GLK. The handsome road rocket keeps adding engines and variants, including the return of the full-bore 560-horsepower twin-turbo V8-powered X5 M. But like other manufacturers, the majority of sales go to smaller gas and especially turbodiesel engines that do big torque at lower costs.
The X3 had a solid 951 units sold, helped by the availability of a four-cylinder turbodiesel in the 28d xDrive and a recent refresh that subtly tightened up a couple minor details, although it’s always been excellent to drive.
BMW’s wildcards here are the second-generation X6 Coupe with its swooping roofline and ‘F-U’ styling, along with its all-new X3-based X4 Coupe. The X6 scored 260 units – or about 20 percent of the X5’s volume. The X4 had 238 sales, or fully a quarter of the X3. Adding BMW’s platforms together by platform, the X5/6 beat out the ML-Class for third, and similar gains for the X3/4.
Other interesting figures? Infiniti proved that it is the inverse of most normal car companies by having its second-largest SUV model also being its most popular. The Nissan Pathfinder-based QX60 sold 824 during the first few months, completely outselling the QX50 (473), QX70 (109) and full-size QX80 (149) combined. Value and practicality over driving experience make the QX60 an easy choice for many families.
The Range Rover Evoque sold essentially as well as the Cadillac SRX, with just under 700 units each, although the only thing they share is a lack of interior headroom and a complete neglect for rear-seat-passenger’s knees.
The Range Rover Sport is yet another one of Jaguar-Land Rover’s bright spots, with 598 of its sleek aluminum bodies finding homes. Truly the first of the company’s products designed to handle both on-road and off, it even offers an optional third row of seats, although if you’re older than 12, only for emergency use.
The Lincoln MKC, which shares plenty of stuff under the skin with the Ford Escape, obviously hasn’t fared as well as its sibling. The MKC offers two turbocharged four-cylinder EcoBoost engines, including the top 2.3L that is found in the Mustang and Focus RS. Despite the MKC offering a sleek and stylish exterior and some neat touches inside, Lincoln was only able to move 545 during that same period.
Another head-scratcher comes from Porsche whose excellent new compact Macan was only able to rustle up 251 sales, barely ahead of the BMW X4? Admittedly, the Macan starts with much more power in its twin-turbocharged S model than the 300 horses corralled into the top X4 xDrive35i, and its starting price reflects that. But Porsche also sold 358 of its older, larger Cayenne in the same time period. Neither are setting the world on fire, though supply issues are hampering the Macan’s sales numbers.
Perhaps the most impressive turnaround comes from Cadillac, whose all-new Escalade is receiving both praise from the press for its excellent product and from customers who are buying them. It’s the first Escalade that really justifies its price premium over the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon with unique suspension design, an eight-speed automatic transmission and a completely unique interior that shares very little with its siblings.
Over 360 Escalades were sold during the first three months of the year, which is more than half of the 617 moved during the entire 2014 model year. At $100,000 a pop, that’s serious much-needed bucks heading into Caddy’s coffers.
