Small/Entry Luxury Car Sales And Midsize Luxury Car Sales In Canada - December 2011 And 2011 Year End

December 2011 Small Lux Car Sales Chart
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Cadillac sold 227 DTS sedans in 2011. Lincoln did better with the Town Car, selling 310 of the big boats. These were not the two best-selling luxury cars in Canada.

Indeed, the BMW 3-Series was Canada's best-selling luxury car, as we already pointed out. In fact, had BMW stopped selling the 3-Series at the end of October, the 3-Series still would have ended 2011 as Canada's best-selling luxury car. Mercedes-Benz C-Class sales jumped 17% in 2011, firming up the C-Class's hold on second place.

Further down the pack, another German, Audi's A4, was third in class. Infiniti's G20/G37 sedans and coupes reported an 18% decrease but still finished 555 sales ahead of the Cadillac CTS. 

Mixed in with these cars are some midsize and/or more expensive luxury cars which you'll find in the table after the jump. Monthly and yearly sales figures for any of these cars, for any current model on sale in North America, can be found by accessing the dropdown menu at the top right of this page. 

Small/Entry Luxury Car	December  2011	% Change	2011	YTD % Change
Acura CSX	73	- 75.5%	1795	- 13.0%
Acura TSX	338	+ 4.6%	1659	- 27.8%
Audi A3	66	+ 29.4%	1289	- 2.5%
Audi A4	262	+ 21.9%	5480	+ 5.2%
BMW 1-Series	63	- 1.6%	1556	- 11.8%
BMW 3-Series	742	- 39.5%	11,226	- 19.9%
Cadillac CTS	165	- 28.6%	3048	+ 2.5%
Infiniti G	248	- 24.2%	3603	- 18.3%
Lexus CT	136	-----	1350	-----
Lexus HS	12	- 70.7%	308	- 58.7%
Lexus IS	143	- 1.4%	2235	+ 0.1%
Mercedes-Benz B-Class	10	- 96.3%	2440	- 18.5%
Mercedes-Benz C-Class	946	+ 18.3%	9447	+ 16.8%
Saab 9-3	3	+ 50.0%	115	+ 5650%
Volvo C30	48	+ 71.4%	682	- 9.7%
Volvo S40	-----	-----	478	- 41.6%
Volvo V50	-----	-----	94	- 63.8%
Volvo S60	109	+ 304%	1519	+ 630%

Small Luxury SUV Sales And Midsize Luxury SUV Sales In Canada - December 2011 And 2011 Year End

December 2011 Small Lux SUV Sales Chart
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Little more than a decade ago, the vast majority of the luxury automakers shown in these tables and charts weren't building SUVs or crossovers. And if they were, the thought of developing multiple versions - one to compete with midsize luxury cars and another to rival their smallest sedans and wagons and maybe another to slot in between - was laughable. Fast forward to 2011 and these luxury utility vehicles were absolutely vital to the automakers' very existence. 

A simple examination of each brand reveals this to be true. With the new X1 competing for sales in Canada, BMW's SAV total ascended to 12,946 in 2011, 43.5% of BMW Canada sales, 2.5 times the total achieved by the whole Mini brand. 48.9% of BMW sales in December stemmed from the X family. The MDX and RDX are Acura's first and third-best-selling models. Acura's luxury utilities out-sold Acura cars by 1794 units in 2011. The Q5 and Q7 make up just 20% of Audi's nameplates but they accounted for 36% of Audi's sales in 2011. The Q5 was Audi's second-best-selling model. Cadillac SRX sales rose 9.6% in 2011 as Cadillac's smaller luxury SUV went from being the brand's second-ranked model to its biggest volume seller.

2011 Year End Small
Lux SUV Sales Chart

Shall we go on? Volvo's XC60 was the brand's top-selling model. Along with the XC90, the two made up 38.5% of Volvo Canada's sales total. Without even considering the GL-Class, Mercedes-Benz's GLK and M-Class, two of the wide-ranging brand's four highest-volume models, made SUVs 32% of Benz's Canadian sales total. 42.2% of Infiniti sales in Canada in 2011 were luxury utilities, though the G20/G37 represents 51.9% of Infiniti's Canadian volume and clearly remains the brand's core model.

Care to continue? Read more on the subject of luxury SUV importance, along with more tables and charts, after the jump. You can also find monthly and yearly sales figures, both Canadian and American, by accessing the dropdown menu at the top right of this screen.

Small Luxury SUV	December  2011	% Change	2011	YTD % Change
Acura RDX	352	+ 15.8%	3070	- 2.9%
Audi Q5	247	+ 65.8%	4502	+ 47.1%
BMW X1	313	-----	2980	-----
BMW X3	375	+ 421%	4671	+ 64.5%
Cadillac SRX	235	- 6.0%	3197	+ 9.6%
Infiniti EX	104	+ 35.1%	1521	- 21.0%
Land Rover LR2	33	+ 3.1%	343	- 19.5%
Land Rover Range Rover Evoque	150	-----	412	-----
Mercedes-Benz GLK	405	- 11.6%	5294	- 9.5%
Volvo XC60	174	- 2.8%	1865	+ 21.1%

Are Americans Buying Fewer Trucks? Yes, Yes, And No

Too little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Here's what you've heard: pickup truck sales are on the rise in America. You also remembering hearing that, in 2009, full-size pickup truck sales had steadily fallen year after year since 2004. 

Clicking through truck sales figures by accessing the dropdown menu at the top right of this page is certainly informative, but it can be slightly misleading, as well. Yes, U.S. Ford F-Series sales fell each year from 2004 through 2009. Yes, Ford F-Series sales have increased both in 2010 and in 2011. Does this say something about the Ford F-Series or does it simply speak to the market as a whole?

America's six core full-size models, excluding the Chevrolet Avalanche and Cadillac Escalade EXT and any Lincoln entry, found 2,456,656 buyers in 2004 and just 1,117,706 buyers in 2009. It's hard to believe that pickup truck popularity died off that much relative to the popularity of passenger cars or SUVs or crossovers. In fact, during that period in which sales of those six trucks collectively dropped 54.5%, America's new vehicle market plunged 38.3%. Though the full-size truck market admittedly became less popular, sales weren't simply cut in half. America's new vehicle market was a much smaller playing field. Those six trucks were fighting for a slice of shrinking pie.

Nevertheless, the second chart in this post makes very clear that when the market shrunk, the market for America's six full-size offerings caved more precipitously. Those six trucks accounted for 14.5% of the overall new vehicle market in 2004 but just 10.7% in 2004. And now that the market has started to grow again - up to 11.6 million sales in 2010 and 12.8 million sales in 2011 - trucks are playing a larger role once again. The F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado, Dodge Ram, GMC Sierra, Nissan Titan, and Toyota Tundra accounted for 11.6% of the new vehicle market in 2010 and 11.7% in 2011.

All of this is explained by the two charts GoodCarBadCar compiled and inserted below. But it's not explained by simply scanning the sales figures for one vehicle and assuming the worst, or the best.

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Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
Top 10 Best-Selling Trucks In America - 2011 Year End
Complete U.S. Truck Sales Chart - 2011 Year End
Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - 2011 Year End
Auto Brand Market Share In America - 2011 Year End