Listed: The most popular vehicles in Canada

In the end, what began as a nose-to-nose horse race ended in a romp for the defending champion.

But for a few months in early 2011…

Well, Hyundai gave Honda a real scare. The Hyundai Elantra flirted with overtaking Honda’s Civic as the best-selling car in Canada, only to fade on the stretch run. When 2011 ended, the Civic had retained the title of best-selling passenger car in Canada.

Final sales totals: Civic, 55,090, a decline of 5.6 per cent from 2010 levels; Elantra, 44,970, a year-over-year increase of a whopping 30.1 per cent. The Elantra, now No. 2 among cars in Canada, finished 2011 with a huge lead over the No. 3 Mazda3 (37,224 and down 22 per cent) and the No. 4 Toyota Corolla (36,663, down 5.2 per cent).

Hyundai Canada, notes auto analyst Dennis DesRosiers, “ran out of cars late in the year so the Elantra could have done even better if product had been available.”

On the light truck side, DesRosiers says the Ford F-Series pickup was “the best-selling light truck and best-selling vehicle of any class with sales of 97,913 units, a slight decline of 1.6 per cent from levels achieved in 2010.”

Other winners:

• Chevrolet Cruze: This compact “finished its first full year in the market in fifth place which is notable for a Detroit-built vehicle…”

• Ford Focus and the Ford Fusion: Both were in the top 10 for sales of passenger cars. “It has been a very long time since three Detroit passenger cars finished in the top 10 in Canada,” says DesRosiers in a note to clients.

• Volkswagen Jetta: sales were up 81.3 per cent last year. The Jetta ended 2011 as the No. 6 car in Canada, says DesRosiers, adding “like Hyundai, VW also struggled finding product to fill dealer’s lots at the end of the year.”

• Dodge Ram and Dodge Caravan: This pair finished 2011 as the No. 2 and No. 3 best-selling light trucks in Canada. The Dodge Journey was No. 7. Reflecting the demise of minivans in general, Caravan sales slipped by 3.4 per cent.

On the year, light truck sales were up 4.7 per cent, while passenger car sales were down 1.8 per cent. Full-size pickups and large commercial vans performed particularly well, respectively up 3.2 per cent to 261,538 and 14.1 per cent to 26,234. DesRosiers expects sales of both to slow in 2012 and become one of the biggest “disappointments” of 2012.

“The growth in sales was related to two factors that are unlikely to continue,” he says. “First, these segments declined the most during the financial crisis, so there was a lot of pent-up demand. This is now pretty well satiated.

“And second, GM and Chrysler had massive incentives on their pick-up trucks as they had to keep their factories humming to show their political masters they were doing well. This is less necessary in the future.”

At the other end of the spectrum, small entry-level sales were up just 1.2 per cent, despite high fuel prices.

“The buyers of this size of vehicle have been most hurt by a lean economy and this was reflected in their sales numbers,” notes the analyst. “If the economy improves this year, and we expect it will, then entry level vehicles should be a better performer in 2011.”

Here are the full details of Canada’s top 10 cars and light trucks for 2011:

	Passenger Cars	2011	2010	% gain/loss
1	Honda Civic	55,090	57,501	-4.2
2	Hyundai Elantra	44,970	34,556	30.1
3	Mazda3	37,224	47,740	-22.0
4	Toyota Corolla	36,663	38,680	-5.2
5	Chevrolet Cruze	33,900	3,184	964.7
6	Volkswagen Jetta	26,749	14,758	81.3
7	Ford Focus	25,736	23,452	9.7
8	Hyundai Accent	22,280	24,017	-7.2
9	Ford Fusion	18,403	19,364	-5.0
10	Hyundai Sonata	16,343	13,856	17.9

*****

	Light Trucks	2011	2010	% gain/loss
1	Ford F-Series	96,325	97,913	-1.6
2	Dodge Ram	62,929	53,386	17.9
3	Dodge Caravan	53,406	55,306	-3.4
4	GMC Sierra	46,680	45,457	2.7
5	Ford Escape	44,248	43,038	2.8
6	Chevrolet Silverado	40,523	41,737	-2.9
7	Dodge Journey	29,021	23,785	22.0
8	Honda CR-V	25,076	24,930	-0.6
9	Hyundai Santa Fe	24,121	27,882	-13.5
10	Chevrolet Equinox	22,468	19,261	16.7