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driving it home

Hyundai Canada is having a monster year with the Elantra compact car. With close to three-quarters of 2011 in the books, the Elantra is within just 110 units of unseating the Honda Civic as Canada's top-selling passenger car.

As of September 1, reports DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, Elantra sales are up 37.9 per cent, while Honda's Civic is down 10.3 per cent.

"And we're not pushing with big sales incentives," says Hyundai Auto Canada president Steve Kelleher.

The Civic has been Canada's best-selling car for 13 years straight, "and symbolically it is a very significant development to lose this mantel to another brand" notes analyst Dennis DesRosiers.

We're seeing other winning stories emerge as the year moves into its final quarter of 2011.

"Other strong models this year are the Chevrolet Cruze and VW Jetta. The Cruze seems to have hit a chord with Canadian consumers with monthly sales north of 3,000 units and YTD (year-to-date) sales of 25,000-plus units," says DesRosiers in a note to clients, adding that the "Jetta has more than doubled sales month in and month out and is a very good example of what a diesel option can do for sales in the Canadian market."

On the light truck side, the Ford F-Series remains on top – and not just among light trucks. The F-Series will finish 2011 as Canada's best-selling vehicle, period.

Two other big winners so far this year: Dodge Journey crossover, up 43 per cent, and Chevrolet Equinox crossover, up 27.1 per cent.

Here are the full details of Canada's top 10 cars and light trucks through the end of the third quarter:

Passenger Cars





Passenger Car

2011

2010

% gain/loss

1

Honda Civic

33,047

36,824

-10.3%

2

Hyundai Elantra

32,937

23,885

37.9%

3

Mazda3

25,675

35,747

-28.2%

4

Chevrolet Cruze

25,060

-

NA

5

Toyota Corolla

24,682

26,622

-7.3%

6

Ford Focus

18,635

17,205

8.3%

7

Volkswagen Jetta

18,567

7,411

150.5%

8

Hyundai Accent

15,790

19,128

-17.5%

9

Ford Fusion

14,042

14,261

-1.5%

10

Hyundai Sonata

11,851

10,054

17.9%



Light Trucks



Light Truck

2011

2010

% gain/loss

1

Ford F-Series

64,581

65,975

-2.1%

2

Dodge Ram

41,355

37,045

11.6%

3

Dodge Caravan

39,790

38,332

3.8%

4

Ford Escape

31,615

29,671

6.6%

5

GMC Sierra

30,641

30,645

0.0%

6

Chevrolet Silverado

26,429

28,219

-6.3%

7

Dodge Journey

21,350

14,933

43.0%

8

Hyundai Santa Fe

18,268

18,417

-0.8%

9

Chevrolet Equinox

16,117

12,676

27.1%

10

Honda CR-V

15,950

17,613

-9.4%

Source: DesRosiers Automotive Consultants

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