Small Car Sales And Entry/Small Luxury Car Sales In Canada - October 2010

Helped by deals and by being one of the better small cars available, the Honda Civic zoom-zoomed past the competition in Canada and beat its nearest rival by 2164 sales in October 2010. There's more on the top sellers from the first Graph you'll see below in both Canada's Best-Selling Cars list from October 2010 and the Best-Selling Japanese Cars In Canada from October 2010. On a more interesting note...

The 2011 Ford Fiesta is starting to finally make a name for itself. Although the long-standing Canadian favourite and significantly less-expensive Hyundai Accent is still dominant, and while the Nissan Versa and Toyota Yaris both out-sold the Fiesta, the Ford's 868 total made it one of the best-selling American cars in Canada last month. There is also now a more realistic supply of Fiesta on Canadian Ford dealer lots. But with the 2012 Fiat 500 soon to be a challenger at Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep stores, can the Fiesta grab a consistent thousand sales per month?

BMW certainly grabs its 1000+ sales per month with the famous 3-Series. Available in four different bodystyles and with five different engines, BMW has a 3-Series to meet just about anyone's needs, so long as "anyone" has $37,650, the price of the 323i. One change marked in October 2010's rundown of small and small-priced luxury cars is the switcheroo between Germany's two other 3-Seriesesque cars. The Audi A4 held off the Mercedes-Benz C-Class for second place honours by a scant two units. Good for Audi, nonetheless. Hopefully plenty of those A4s sold were painted in Teak Brown Metallic.

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Small Car, Midsize Car & Large Car Sales In Canada - October 2011
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Midsize & Large Car Sales In Canada - October 2010
Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In Canada - October 2010
Canada Auto Sales By Brand - October 2010
Midsize Luxury & Large Luxury Car Sales - October 2010

Minivan Sales In Canada - October 2010

There's no denying Chrysler and Dodge's hold on the Canadian minivan market is based partially on price. You get the full-size minivan type, not the small sort like the Kia Rondo or Mazda 5 but the price is more Kia/Mazda-like than Honda/Toyota like. The new 2011 Honda Odyssey is priced from $29,990. The 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan starts at $20,945 and tops out (before options) at $27,990 for the SXT Plus.

Even so, the 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan and 2011 Chrysler Town & Country will feature a 283-bhp 3.6L V6, an improved interior, and slightly rejigged styling. Adding greater appeal to a minivan that's already wildly successful will pay off. To what extent? 64% of all minivans sold in Canada in October 2010 were either Dodges or Chryslers. Chrysler only sold 452 of'em, but still. The duo is unbeatable. 

Can Chrysler/Dodge grab two-thirds of the minivan market in Canada; 75% even? To add to the first part of the theory, yes, Chrysler can grab even more of the minivan market, but only if prices stay low.

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Minivan Sales In Canada - October 2011

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Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In Canada - October 2010

Canada Auto Sales By Brand - October 2010

Smart Fortwo Blower Problem: Blower Doesn't Blow

GoodCarBadCar.net's long-term 2009 smart fortwo refuses to blow hot hair. In fact, the smart car isn't blowing any kind of air whatsoever. The fan speed has five settings: off, 1, 2, 3, and 4. (Fan speed 2 is actually symbolized as a fan.) Temperature controls are in celsuis, from sub-18C to 26+C. The blower can be set to defrost, upper-cabin, foot-level-cabin, or combinations of the three. Regardless of the setting, GCBC's long-term smart fortwo won't blow a'tall.

Curiously, this off-the-wall problem is well-chronicled at smartcarofamerica.com. That smart could've been having these problems, safety problems that they are, as far back as late 2008 and done nothing about it is appalling. Imagine The Good Car Guy driving along as the temperatures outdoors rise and rain starts to fall. The car instantly fogs up and what're we to do? Turn the blower on, right? Except the blower refuses to blow.

Thankfully, our local smart dealership, O'Regan's Mercedes-Benz/smart, is close by. But this is Sunday. The problem may have started Friday - the fan was taking its time turning on but then blowing full blast - but only on Saturday night was the blower problem full-blown. After many minutes of waiting, The Good Car Girl eventually found heat when she was about ready to arrive back at GCBC Towers. During 15-20 minutes away from GCBC Towers today, November 20/2010, a Sunday, the smart car's blower never came on. The temperature was, according to the smart's thermometer, -1C (30.2F). We hope to land the smart at O'Regan's tomorrow for a quick fix. Oh, and within the last couple weeks, the long-term smart's steering wheel has started to peel away at the 12 o'clock position. Along with the smart's blinker knob problem from the summer, this all goes against the initial feeling we had that the smart felt like it was built more like a Benz than a Bajaj.

*Update*
November 22/2010 @ 4:52pm
GoodCarBadCar.net's long-term 2009 smart fortwo has been fitted with a new blower motor. The car was at O'Regan's Mercedes-Benz from 9:30 to the time the repair was completed, under warranty, at 4:00 this afternoon. A thorough exterior wash has made the smart as shiny as new, too. It became apparent after feeling and hearing the effects of the new blower motor that the old blower's performance over the last couple weeks had gradually worsened, even when it was operating "correctly". The charge for this repair, had it not been under warranty, would have been at least $225 but could have been as high as $400+ when taking retail parts costs and labour into consideration.

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2011 Hyundai Elantra Gallery And Style Analysis

Does the 2011 Hyundai Elantra have a bad angle? Those in disagreement with The Good Car Guy will point out that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But that's only if there's anyone who disagrees with fact that the next Hyundai Elantra is the best-looking C-segment car available in North America.

From the rear, the Elantra is miniaturized 2011 Sonata, only with lines which flow more smoothly. The front is maybe a bit cartoonish, but the drama of the slightly grinning face and windblown headlamps is only let down by the interrupting character line on either side of the grille. The line is fine, but it'd be better if it faded in and out as it approached and vacated the grille area. The profile view of the new Elantra is made more memorable with a defining line striking through the door handles. Apart from that, there are gracefully swollen wheelarches and an artfully crafted greenhouse.

Moving inside, the only shock apparent is the dirty dead pedal Hyundai mistakenly left uncleaned for promo photos. (Intentional? To make the pictures more realistic? That'd be unprecedented.) The concave swing of the IP as it curves toward the stereo controls is a little.... er, odd, but odd is good, right? If there were more "odd" out there then cars wouldn't look like bulbous carbon copies of each other.

The most important factor Hyundai has homed in on is the 2011 Elantra's desirability. Compared with the 2011 Toyota Corolla, the Elantra is exciting enough to raise readings on sphygmomanometers. The Kia Forte looks classy but can't match for the Elantra's ambience. Even the 2011 Honda Civic, somewhat dramatic when released for MY2006, looks quite boring beside the Elantra. The Elantra makes the Chevrolet Cruze verge on forgettable. Only the 2012 Ford Focus seems stylish enough to tackle the Elantra. Both are said to be 40 miles per gallon cars, too.

Check out plenty of 2011 Hyundai Elantra pictures in the Gallery below.



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Large SUV Sales And Large Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2010

Let's be clear: GoodCarBadCar.net is as willing as any other website to give credit where credit is due. But the Ford Expedition was not Canada's best-selling large SUV in October 2010. In many Graphs, The Good Car Guy combines identical vehicles for the purposes of saving space. Think of the Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute, for example. In the Large SUV Sales chart, however, there's no need to save space. Thus, the Chevrolet Suburban, Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon, and GMC Yukon XL are separated. Combined, even as duos - regular and stretched - the GM brutes have the Expedition beat. It is kind of interesting that the Suburban out-sold the Tahoe in October, but at volumes these low, anomalies happen.

As for Large Luxury SUVs, GM is not the victor. No, the crown goes to the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen.... in concert with the more mainstream Mercedes-Benz GL-Class.

Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Large Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2011
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Large SUV Sales In Canada - November 2010
Large SUV & Large Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - September 2010
Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In Canada - October 2010
Small SUV & Small Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2010
Midsize SUV & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2010
Canada Auto Sales By Brand - October 2010

Midsize SUV Sales And Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2010

In the midsize SUV sales segment(s), volume is large. Challenging for the overall title of best-selling midsize SUV in Canada in October 2010 is the Jeep Grand Cherokee. How did it get to 1315? Sales jumped 500% from October 2009, not an easy feat regardless of how low volume was before. The true victor, the 2011 Ford Edge, posted sales of 975 in October 2009 but zoomed to 1367 last month; likewise, not an easy feat. 

Even among the luxury competitors, sales are strong. Lexus RX sales fell 23% and it still topped the class. How 'bout those uppity European SUVs? Well, the Mercedes-Benz ML is no RX in terms of volume, but if your lemonade stand saw revenue of over $21 million from just one product in one month in a small market, you'd probably be pleased. Graphs on midsize SUV sales and midsize luxury SUV sales in Canada for October 2010 are below.

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Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2011
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Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In Canada - October 2010
Small SUV & Small Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2010
Large SUV & Large Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2010
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Small SUV Sales And Small Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2010

From Nissan's perspective, The Good Car Guy's test of the 2011 Nissan Juke was a roaring success. And though 83 sales a month doesn't sound like much, the Juke was only on sale in Canada for about a week in October. While the Juke is by no means directly comparable to the 2011 Mitsubishi RVR - the Outlander Sport in the States - it's quite likely that Juke sales in November or December will surpass the RVR. There's more on Nissan Canada's October 2010 here.

There's likely no other automotive category more competitive than the small luxury SUV segment. Some would like to see the Cadillac SRX pushed out of the arena, or have the Lexus RX thrown in. Regardless, even the RX's 659 October sales sounds like a reachable total for the others. Only the Volvo XC60 and Land Rover LR2 seem ignored. So what's gonna happen to the LR2 when the 2011 Land Rover Evoque steals the show? 

Graphs representing October 2010 Canadian auto sales for small SUVs and small luxury SUVs are below.

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Small SUV, Midsize SUV & Large SUV Sales In Canada - October 2011
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Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In Canada - October 2010
Canada Auto Sales By Brand - October 2010
Midsize SUV & Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2010
Large SUV & Large Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - October 2010