Driving By Numbers: What have been Canada’s best-selling autos in 2000?

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As a lot of Canada’s auto market is at present capped by the variety of autos automakers can provide, on the flip of the century automotive producers have been combating for each final tooth and nail of market share with surging incentives. The 12 months 2000, on the time, was probably the greatest years on file for the Canadian automotive trade with greater than 1.55 million gross sales.

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However the tide was turning. The normal Massive Three Detroit automakers noticed their share of the market, whereas nonetheless formidable at 66 {7e44665ad31c7163a3225b5cdeca12ae8e1ba5a9651d05b2285576263eb8f3ac}, slide as import momentum picked up steam. It was the primary 12 months for Kia, for instance. Premium manufacturers that as we speak exert a lot management — Mercedes-Benz and BMW — mixed for fewer than 23,000 gross sales. That’s the sort of quantity the German duo produced in solely the primary 5 months of 2021, whereas 22-year-old Kia Canada now produces in two months what it did in all of calendar 12 months 2000.

As for the Massive Three, proudly owning two-thirds of the market now sounds downright comical. The trio bought over a million autos in 2000, 400,000 greater than in 2021. GM, Ford, and Stellantis personal barely greater than one-third of the Canadian market in 2021. Want extra context? Common Motors bought roughly the identical variety of passenger automobiles — a department of the corporate that now barely exists — in 2000 as Toyota, Lexus, Honda, and Acura bought complete autos, mixed.

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But it wasn’t GM, however quite its Ford compatriot, that dominated one of the best vendor charts in 2000, and it was a DaimlerChrysler car that really topped these charts. Quick ahead to the present decade and Ford, GM, and Chrysler-related manufacturers stay main gamers on Canada’s best-seller lists, however it’s not with automobiles and minivans. Vehicles and SUVs are the dominant autos of our time, a significant shift from 2000 when a transparent majority of the brand new autos bought in Canada have been passenger automobiles. Take into account, in 2000, Daewoo bought extra automobiles than BMW bought SUVs. Whereas as we speak Land Rover outsells its Jaguar accomplice by practically 5-to-1 in Canada, in 2000, all-car Jaguar bought twice as many autos as all-SUV Land Rover.

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But there are nonetheless lingering facets of the Canadian market we knew in 2000. Some issues take greater than a pair many years to vary. Listed below are the 5 best-selling autos in 2000 — let’s see the place they stand as we speak.

5. Ford Focus

In its first full 12 months available on the market, the Ford Focus was an plain hit. Clocking in at No.5 total, the Escort-replacing Focus was Canada’s second-best-selling automotive. Practically 20 years later, the ultimate 1,582 copies of Ford Canada’s compact automotive have been bought in 2019. Mustang apart, Ford is now not a participant in Canada’s shrinking automotive market. In 2000, automobiles shaped 35 per cent of Ford’s Canadian quantity; practically 100,000 items.

Canada’s fifth-best-selling car in 2021 was the Chevrolet Silverado.

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4. Ford Windstar

Earlier than present process a rebranding course of because the Freestar, Ford’s Windstar minivan was an especially high-volume contender. To be truthful, even in its ultimate full 12 months (2006), the dying Ford Freestar produced 11,692 gross sales, nearly on par with Canada’s top-selling minivan in 2021. It’s clearly a unique world. Ford jumped out of the minivan section at a degree when minivan gross sales have been 5 instances stronger than they’re now.

The No.4 car in Canada in 2021 was the GMC Sierra.

3. Honda Civic

The Honda Civic is competing for a slice of a a lot smaller pie now than it was in 2000, however it stays the dominant passenger automotive in Canada. 2000 was the third consecutive 12 months of best-selling-car standing for the Canadian-built Civic, a run that now stands at 24 years. However whereas automobiles accounted for 55 per cent of all new car gross sales in 2000, the Civic is now an enormous fish in a a lot smaller pond — in 2021, fewer than 20 per cent of auto gross sales in Canada have been of the automotive selection.

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The Toyota RAV4 was Canada’s third-best-selling car in 2021.

2. Ford F-Sequence

After six consecutive years as Canada’s No.1 car line, the Ford F-Sequence succumbed to a minivan — sure, a minivan — in 2000. Now routinely cranking out properly over 100,000 gross sales per 12 months, a feat by no means achieved in a single 12 months by some other car, the broad F-Sequence lineup has held onto the highest spot yearly since 2009. Revealing simply how vital the F-150 and its Tremendous Obligation companions are to a contemporary Ford Motor Firm, Ford’s different prime sellers in 2000 now not exist within the Canadian market. In 2021, 49 per cent of Ford’s Canadian gross sales got here from the F-Sequence and no different Ford ranked within the prime 10.

Ram’s pickup line was Canada’s second-best-selling car in 2021.

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1. Dodge Caravan

Within the Y2K period, the Dodge Caravan took over as Canada’s best-selling car for 3 consecutive years. Revealing simply how wildly totally different Canada’s automotive tastes have been 22 years in the past, the Caravan — by itself — produced 87,737 gross sales. That’s along with its accomplice vans at Chrysler, plus vans from nearly each different mainstream model. In 2021, however, the whole minivan market totalled solely 33,648 items and three Chrysler/Dodge nameplates mixed for under 13,339 gross sales, down from 25,643 in 2020.

The highest-ranked car line in Canada in 2021 was the Ford F-Sequence.