Canadian sales of vehicles fell 3.3 percent in February

Canadian sales of cars and light trucks have declined 3.3 percent last month, compared with the same period a year ago, several major Japanese manufacturers saw their sales drop, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.

The consulting company announced Friday that sales of light vehicles were totaled 103,226 units in February, against 106,712 during the same month in 2012.

The car sales fall 4.2 percent, 44,359 units, against 46,285, while those of light trucks were slipping 2.6 percent, 58,867, against 60,427.

"Mazda is the only ray of sunshine among the major Japanese brands, Toyota, Honda and Nissan all showing significant declines," said DesRosiers said in a report.

Honda Canada reported combined sales of 7,823 units of its Honda and Acura in February, down 12 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

The company specified that sales of Honda vehicles had decreased by 13 percent, 6,873 units, those luxury cars Acura has decreased by five percent to 950 vehicles.

As for them, Toyota sales were falling 13.6 per cent to 9958, against 11,523 a year ago. These Lexus luxury vehicle division of Honda, skidded 5.1 percent, 817, whereas they had been 861 units in February 2012.

Mazda has recorded an increase of 2.1 percent, while Nissan saw its sales drop 14.9 percent.

Among the major North American automakers, Chrysler dominates, having just ahead of Ford at the forefront of the best sellers of the month.

Chrysler sold 16,832 vehicles in Canada during the month of February, which represents an increase of two per cent compared to last year and allows him to stay atop the auto sellers in Canada until now in 2013.

Chrysler, which had elapsed 16,536 vehicles in the same month in 2012, indicating that these results were its best since 2000. This is also a 39th consecutive month of annual growth for the company, the longest sequence of the genus its history.

For its part, Ford of Canada also posted growth in sales of vehicles in February, compared to the same month last year.

However, even if its autos and trucks totaled 16,301 units _ which represents an increase of 5.4 percent compared to February 2012 _ it remains below the figures for Chrysler.

General Motors sold 13,987 vehicles last month, down 1.9 percent compared to sales of 14,258 vehicles in February 2012.