This weeks hot Unhaggle deal includes the Ford F-150, GMC Sierra and Ram 1500.Handout / Ford / GMC / Ram Canadian auto sales are down. In fact, Canadian auto sales have been in decline since the early spring of last year, failing to match the prior-year totals in 16 consecutive months.The story is becoming all too familiar; the headlines too easy to write. Automobile manufacturers cant seem to quit the passenger car business fast enough and cant open new SUV assembly plants with any more haste. Premium marques, via products such as the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and Lexus UX, are diving downmarket in the hopes of sustaining the last decades conspicuous march into the mainstream. Last years top sellers are this years top sellers. And then theres the unpredictable Tesla, with meaningful volume and a future always in question.Those are the main themes. But in a market thats lost more than 5 percent of its volume through the first half of the year, weve sorted through the numbers to find 10 stories that fill in the blanks. In search of a measure of nuance, these 10 tales are the details well want to look back on in six months time to see how 2019 really turned out.Top Trucks TumbleIn the highly competitive full-size pickup truck arena, the fact that the Ford F-150 hasnt been fully redesigned since the 2015 model year should, theoretically, bode well for freshly redesigned rivals. The Ram 1500, GMC Sierra, and Chevrolet Silverado were all new for the 2019 model year. Yet in a gradually shrinking pickup truck market, Fords full-size pickup truck sales are up 4 percent this year, while the second, third, and fourth-ranked trucks from Ram, GMC, and Chevrolet are sliding. And theyre sliding quite noticeably. The F-Series top challengers are collectively down by more than 7,000 sales so far this year.The Detroit RiverOnce known as The Big Three and now more clearly as The Detroit Three (irrespective of brand origin), General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles produced only 41 percent of all auto sales in Canada during 2019s first six months. Thats down from 43 percent at this stage of 2018, its worse than the market share produced by the trio during the last major recession of a decade ago, and its a far cry from the 53 percent share attributed to the Detroit Three as recently as 2007.Car QuintetThe fact that cars traditional passenger cars the likes of which more than half of all buyers opted for a decade ago are struggling is not news. Barely more than one-quarter of all automobile purchases ends up as a car acquisition. But what amplifies the degree to which cars are now so wholly rejected is the decline of Canadas most popular cars. Through the first half of 2019, Canadas five best-selling cars (Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra, Mazda3, Volkswagen Golf) are all selling less often than they did a year ago. In fact, the quintet has combined to lose nearly 10,000 sales compared with a year ago.Homegrown SUVsBoth of Canadas two best-selling cars are built right here in Canada. The same can be said in the SUV/crossover sector. The difference, however, is the level of success encountered by Canadian-made SUVs; not just the number one Toyota RAV4 and number two Honda CR-V but by other Canadian-assembled utility vehicles, as well. The RAV4, CR-V, and Ford Edge all rank inside the top 10. Together with the Chevrolet Equinox, Lexus RX, Ford Flex, Lincoln Nautilus, and Lincoln MKT, Canadian-made SUVs account for nearly one-fifth of the SUV market.Monotonous Minivan MinimizingShoppers that in times past were automatically destined to drive away from a new car dealer in a minivan are, just like passenger car buyers, increasingly destined to buy a new three-row crossover. This isnt a new phenomenon, but the rate at which Canadas five-strong minivan lineup is collapsing is now solidly in nosedive mode. Minivan volume plunged 19 percent in calendar year 2018; minivans are down 18 percent this year. That takes these monobox people carriers down to just 3.5 percent of the market. Aside from an uptick in sales of the Kia Sedona (which accounts for less than one-tenth of the segment), each nameplate in the segment is in decline. The Chrysler Pacifica, Dodge Grand Caravan, and Honda Odyssey are all down by double-digit percentage losses compared with 2018.Vorsprung Durch OffspringIn Audis showrooms, the student has become the teacher. Audis A4 lineup goes back generations, all the way to the mid-90s B5 generation of which nearly 1.7 million were built. In 2007, the A4 made possible an Audi coupe/convertible range called the A5. As time wore on, it became clear that the two-door market was evolving. Thus, the launch of the second-generation A5 spawned a direct A4 rival called the A5 Sportback, a liftback four-door A5 that, as it turns out, helps to make the A5 far more popular than ever. In fact, the car that Audi spun off from the A4 to incrementally add premium passenger car sales is now
Origin: 10 curious storylines to watch from 2019’s first half of Canadian auto sales