December 2012 Top 20 Best-Selling SUVs In Canada

In Canada, the Ford Escape's position atop the SUV leaderboard is so secure that we often step right over mentioning it on the way to find what else is worthy of a story. This is especially true when the Escape is struggling to repeat prior year sales performances, as it has for much of 2012, and indeed again in December. Escape sales dropped by 220 units last month.

The Hyundai Santa Fe moved up to the second slot on December's best-selling SUV list. This won't surprise observers who knew of the Santa Fe's strength before the second-gen crossover aged; before the third-gen vehicle was fully available. Santa Fe sales were more than twice as strong in December 2012 as in December 2011, when it ranked tenth in the category.

Top 25 Best-Selling SUVs In Canada - 2012 Year End

Further down this list of Canada's most popular utility vehicles you'll find two luxury nameplates, neither of which says "Lexus" or "RX", although the dominant Lexus did end the year ahead of both the Audi Q5 and Mercedes-Benz GLK. Audi's Q5 starts at $39,900 in Canada, some $5000 below the GLK350's base price. The GLK's base price is $50 lower than the RX350's.

All 262 Vehicles Ranked By 2012 Canadian Sales
And in 20th spot, a Mitsubishi. Outlander sales fell 15% from 641 in December 2011 but were still strong enough to land a Mitsubishi on a best seller list. Extend a best seller list enough and who knows what you might find: the Mitsubishi RVR was Canada's 28th-best-selling utility vehicle in December 2012.

GoodCarBadCar.net will be posting a list of 2012's best-selling SUVs and crossovers in a few minutes. Until then, be aware that you can find historical monthly and yearly sales figures for any vehicle by accessing the dropdown menu at GCBC's Sales Stats page. What you see below were the 20 best-selling SUVs and crossovers in Canada in December 2012.

Rank	Best-Selling SUV	December 2012	% Change	2012  Year End	YTD % Change
#1	Ford Escape	2781	- 7.3%	44,099	- 0.3%
#2	Hyundai Santa Fe	1971	+ 108%	23,394	- 3.0%
#3	Honda CR-V	1959	+ 4.6%	33,339	+ 33.0%
#4	Dodge Journey	1578	- 17.7%	28,888	- 0.5%
#5	Toyota RAV4	1487	- 34.9%	25,942	+ 20.4%
#6	Chevrolet Equinox	1048	- 34.5%	20,390	- 9.2%
#7	Kia Sorento	1022	+ 7.2%	14,031	- 7.1%
#8	Ford Edge	1011	- 10.7%	18,837	+ 20.5%
#9	Jeep Wrangler	988	+ 27.0%	18,996	+ 21.5%
#10	Nissan Rogue	923	- 32.6%	14,329	+ 1.0%
#11	GMC Terrain	901	+ 8.7%	12,302	+ 4.1%
#12	Mazda CX-5	786	-----	11,301	-----
#13	Ford Explorer	768	+ 17.1%	10,427	+ 10.9%
#14	Jeep Grand Cherokee	683	- 28.1%	10,416	+ 1.3%
T15	Subaru Forester	610	+ 5.4%	7156	- 17.5%
T15	Toyota Highlander	610	+ 20.8%	6851	+ 22.9%
#17	Hyundai Tucson	597	- 21.8%	13,969	- 2.4%
#18	Audi Q5	564	+ 128%	6152	+ 36.7%
#19	Mercedes-Benz GLK	562	+ 38.8%	5279	- 0.3%
#20	Mitsubishi Outlander	544	- 15.1%	5267	- 7.8%

Source: Manufacturers & ANDC
Red font indicates year-over-year declining sales

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