2009 New Car Sales: Carmageddon

December sales up, 2009 sales down

Jan 6, 2010

New vehicle sales were up 17.8 percent in December 2009 compared with 2008, but sales for all of 2009 were down 10.7 percent compared to the year before, according to a report by industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers.
There were 1,460,581 passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2009, the lowest since 1998, when sales were 1.427 million units. The decline of 10.7 percent was the largest since 1990, when sales declined by 11.4 percent.

“A very unique situation developed in 2009 with four of the top five (companies) seeing significant sales declines,” DesRosiers said. “This has never happened before.”

General Motors, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota all showed declines for 2009. Only Ford showed an increase, and with four of the top five struggling, it leaves a lot of room for others to do well, DesRosiers said.

Several companies were up, including Kia, Subaru, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Hyundai, which broke the 100,000 vehicle mark for the first time in Canada, with a total of 103,233 units sold in 2009.
Sales for December and final percentages for 2009 are after the jump.

Winners in December

BMW: 1,848 units (up 5.9%)
Chrysler: 13,739 units (up 12.9%)
Ford: 17,902 units (up 25.4%)
Honda: 10,830 units (up 20.9%)
Hyundai: 5,154 units (up 37.4%)
Infiniti: 489 units (up 1.0%)
Jaguar: 57 units (up 50.0%)
Kia: 2,645 units (up 61.1%)
Land Rover: 243 units (up 62.0%)
Lexus: 1,235 units (up 36.3%)
Mercedes-Benz: 1,819 units (up 14.5%)
Mitsubishi: 1,609 units (up 8.0%)
Nissan: 4,652 units (up 15.1%)
Porsche: 114 units (up 20.0%)
smart: 226 units (up 50.7%)
Subaru: 1,945 units (up 27.2%)
Suzuki: 707 units (up 0.4%)
Toyota: 16,472 units (up 86.2%)
Volvo: 625 units (up 133.2%)

Losers in December

Acura: 1,533 units (down 4.0%)
Audi: 701 units (down 5.1%)
General Motors: 18,825 units (down 9.3%)
Mazda: 4,261 units (down 5.5%)
MINI: 297 units (down 1.0%)
Saab: 53 units (down 45.9%)
Volkswagen: 3,205 units (down 10.9%)

2009 Totals:

Winners in 2009

Audi up 22.0%
BMW up 6.4%
Ford up 6.8%
Hyundai up 28.0%
Kia up 22.9%
Lexus up 5.3%
Mercedes-Benz up 19.2%
Mitsubishi up 6.2%
Porsche up 0.4%
Subaru up 15.8%
Volkswagen up 0.1%
Volvo up 0.5%

Losers

Acura down 11.8%
Chrysler down 26.7%
General Motors down 29.1%
Honda down 19.1%
Infiniti down 13.2%
Jaguar down 13.5%
Land Rover down 12.5%
Mazda down 13.3%
MINI down 13.3%
Nissan down 4.5%
Saab down 50.4%
smart down 28.9%
Suzuki down 8.5%
Toyota down 9.5%