Honda pulls ahead in
Canadian sales
Oct. 3, 2006. 03:57 PM
CANADIAN PRESS
Japan-based automaker Honda (NYSE: HMC) surged ahead of Ford and Chrysler in Canadian sales last month with a 46 per cent increase from September of last year.
Industry leader General Motors of Canada (NYSE:
GM), meanwhile, reported an 8.1 per cent rise in September sales over a year ago, pulling against a 3.1 per cent decline in GM's U.S. sales.
Honda Canada said Tuesday that last month's sales of Hondas and Acuras hit a record 16,888 units, carried by an 80 per cent increase in trucks. The Odyssey minivan moved 2,006 units, up 91 per cent, while sales of the Ontario-assembled Civic compact sedan rose 45 per cent to 7,586.
GM Canada said it sold 35,687 vehicles for the month. Its sales of trucks, including pickups, minivans and SUVs, were up 21 per cent from the gas-price-panic slump of a year earlier, to 18,467. Canadian deliveries of GM passenger car declined 2.9 per cent to 17,220.
DaimlerChrysler Canada (NYSE:
DCX) sales were up 0.5 per cent from September 2005 to 16,191 units, as car sales rose 104 per cent to 3,775 and truck sales declined 2.2 per cent to 12,416.
Ford Motor Co. of Canada (NYSE:
F) posted a 1.4 per cent year-over-year increase to 15,343 units, led by sales of its Fusion sedan and the F-150 and Ranger pickup trucks.
Ford's car sales were flat at 4,154 while truck sales edged up 1.9 per cent to 11,189.
Despite lingering fuel-price anxiety, Chrysler Canada's vice-president of sales, Dave Buckingham, commented that "pickup trucks continue to have an excellent year, and for the second month in a row we set a Dodge Ram sales record," up 6.9 per cent to 2,914.
Chrysler's half-per-cent Canadian sales gain outpaced the carmaker's American sales performance, which was down 3.8 per cent from a year ago.
Ford of Canada's 1.9 per cent sales increase trailed a 4.7 per cent gain in Ford's U.S. deliveries.
The latest monthly tallies came against a background of a year-ago performance dented by startling spikes in gasoline prices and by the phase-out of employee-discounts-for-all promotions by the North American Big Three.
Overall Canadian industry sales in September 2005 were 124,175, down 2.4 per cent from a year earlier, with GM, Ford and Chrysler suffering the bulk of the loss while Asian competitors gained.
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Honda pulls ahead in Canadian Sales "46 per cent Increase" Canadian Press
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