Driving By Numbers: 10 biggest brand losers in Canada in 2022

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If 2020’s primary automotive industry challenge was initially perceived to be a sudden shortfall in demand, and if 2021’s difficulty was keeping pace with a rapid rebound, 2022 was stuffed full of a new kind of adversity. Can automakers build enough vehicles to re-fill dealer lots?

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Not even close. By the latter stages of 2021 it was clear that acquiring “inventory” was no longer a reasonable goal. Stocking empty lots wasn’t going to happen; meeting a baseline of demand would be sufficiently challenging on its own.

Some automakers did a much better job of that than others. Ten auto brands, including high-volume players Chevrolet, GMC, Ram, Jeep, and Audi, actually sold more vehicles in 2022 than 2021 despite the fact that overall auto sales slipped 9 per cent. That was enough of a drag to pull the industry’s Canadian sales total to a 13-year low. Not since 2009 have Canadian consumers, businesses, governments, and fleets acquired so small a number of new vehicles.

On the flip side, the 10 auto brands that declined at the worst rate — they’re all ranked below — combined for a dramatic reduction in market share: 28 per cent a year ago; 23 per cent in 2022.

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10. Dodge: down 17 per cent to 12,774

Dodge lost its Ram pickup truck line. Then it lost the high-volume Journey. Parent-company Stellantis then decided that Chrysler would inherit the Grand Caravan. A decade ago, that trio produced 149,695 Canadian sales, not even factoring in 16,639 sales from other Dodges such as the Avenger, Dart, and Durango. In 2022, meanwhile, the Durango was responsible for generating 7,765 of Dodge’s 12,774 sales; the Challenger and Charger kicked in another 5,009.

9. Mazda: down 20 per cent to 49,874

Mindful of a fourth-quarter in which Mazda sales actually grew 1 per cent — and a 41-per-cent year-over-year December improvement — Mazda’s 2022 was nevertheless an extraordinarily low-volume effort. Look at it this way: in 2008, Mazda sold more Mazda 3 sedans and hatchbacks than the company sold total vehicles in 2022. In 2022, Mazda sold only 8,044 3s, 32-per-cent year-over-year drop. Mazda’s fourth-quarter upgrade, on the other hand, wasn’t powered by a resurgent 3 but rather big upgrades from its three biggest crossovers. The CX-5, CX-50, and CX-9 were up by a combined 1,510 units.

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8. Volkswagen: down 22 per cent to 46,951

With very little assistance from passenger cars, Volkswagen’s Canadian numbers were bound to crater. Volkswagen actually sold more crossovers in 2022 than 2021; 5-per-cent more. But even though those crossovers now account for better than 8 out of every 10 VeeDub sales, the absence of car success did the brand’s overall figures no favours. Volkswagen’s car total collapsed to the tune of 15,256 lost sales in 2022.

7. Subaru: down 23 per cent to 44,009

There are now nine separate Subaru models, yet of the eight that were on sale in 2021, only one sold in greater numbers in 2022. That’s the low-volume BRZ sports car, which reported a 42-per-cent year-over-year uptick to 623 units. Unfortunately, the BRZ only accounts for 1 per cent of Subaru’s Canadian volume.

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6. Nissan: down 23 per cent to 70,965

After an opening nine months in which Nissan’s Canadian output had fallen 26 per cent from 2021 levels, including a 43-per-cent third-quarter decline, the end of the year wasn’t quite so bad. Granted, you could argue that in a market that actually grew slightly in Q4, Nissan’s 14-per-cent decline is nothing to write home about. Rare in Nissan’s portfolio, the Altima, Leaf, Frontier, and Pathfinder were the only vehicles to sell more often in 2022 than 2021.

5. Buick: down 27 per cent to 11,219

Cadillac sales increased. Chevrolet reported a bigger year. GMC was up 9 per cent. But GM Canada’s fourth brand, the lowest-volume brand of the bunch, reported one of the worst declines in the industry. The biggest impediment to success were small crossovers. Combined Encore and Encore GX volume slid 37 per cent, a loss of 3,207 units.

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4. Honda: down 30 per cent to 91,882

Bigger than the next-best-selling brand on this list by a 29-per-cent margin, Honda’s 30-per-cent year-over-year loss amounts to a staggering 39,372-unit decline. That works out to an average per-dealer decrease of roughly 170 vehicles in 2022. Trouble spots were everywhere: the Civic lost its title (held for 24 consecutive years) as Canada’s best-selling car due to a 32-per-cent loss. Accord volume slid 42 per cent. CR-V volume plunged 37 per cent. One Honda reported an improvement: Passport volume grew by 2 per cent.

3. Acura: down 30 per cent to 11,412

Honda’s upmarket Acura brand is in the midst of a product revolution. There was a new RDX for 2019, a new TLX sedan for 2021, a fourth-gen MDX for the 2022 model year, and a reincarnated Integra for 2023. But more important than new product is available product, and Acura — like Honda — spent 2022 woefully short on product. Acura car sales slipped 22 per cent; its two crossovers combined to fall 33 per cent, a decrease of nearly 4,300 units.

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2. Land Rover: down 36 per cent to 5,526

One-half of Tata Group’s British automotive duo, Land Rover succumbed to the supply chain crisis with year-over-year declines from all seven models. Not coincidentally, the model that suffered the least compared with 2021, Land Rover’s Defender, is now the brand’s best-selling model. Defender sales slipped 8 per cent to 1,630 units. The only Land Rover in four-digit territory is the Range Rover Sport, which plunged 54 per cent to 1,166 sales.

1. Jaguar: down 45 per cent to 1,020

Jaguar, Land Rover’s Tata-owned British partner, posted the worst year-over-year sales decrease of any automotive marque in 2022. If there’s any good news, it’s in the fact that Jaguar was already such a low-volume brand. A 45-per-cent drop at Jaguar amounts to only 826 fewer sales. Of all Jaguar sales, 80 per cent stem from the F-Pace, Jaguar’s first SUV.