Top 15 Best-Selling Luxury Vehicles In Canada – March 2016

Let’s not pretend that it’s difficult to see what’s going on here. Only three of Canada’s 15 best-selling premium brand vehicles in March 2016 were traditional passenger cars. Combined sales of those three cars plunged 26% in March.

The other 12 members of the top 15 were all utility vehicles, from the second-overall Mercedes-Benz GLE to the Land Rover Range Rover Sport and Infiniti QX60, tied at the bottom of the list. Not a single one of those 12 nameplates sold less often in March 2016 than during March 2015, nor did any one of the 12 sell less often in 2016 Q1 than in 2015 Q1. Their collective volume jumped 35%.

The trend is similar when examining the most popular $50,000+ vehicles on sale in Canada. Only two cars cracked the top 15, and while their sales are rising relative to 2015, it’s clear that high-riding SUVs and crossovers are at the core of the market’s growth.

The seven leaders in March were all utilities, from the GLE, Lexus RX, and BMW X5, to the Acura MDX, Range Rover Sport, Volvo XC90, and Audi Q7.

Through the first three months of 2016, car sales at Acura, BMW, Infiniti, Lexus, Lincoln, Porsche, and Volvo are in decline while sales of their SUVs/crossovers are on the rise. Meanwhile, at the premium brands which are growing their car volume – Audi, Cadillac, Jaguar-Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz – SUV/crossover sales are rising far faster than car sales.

Historical monthly and yearly sales figures for any of these top-selling luxury vehicles can always be accessed through the dropdown menu at GCBC’s Sales Stats page, and for those not viewing the mobile version of this site, near the top right of this page, as well.

March 2017 • April 2016 • February 2016 • March 2015

Rank	Premium Brand Vehicle	March 2016	March 2015	% Change	2016 YTD	2015 YTD	% Change
#1	Mercedes-Benz C-Class	891	1248	-28.6%	1882	2556	-26.4%
#2	Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class/M-Class	797	594	34.2%	1927	1309	47.2%
#3	Audi Q5	694	574	20.9%	1503	1370	9.7%
#4	Acura RDX	694	492	41.1%	1379	1261	9.4%
#5	Lexus RX	662	587	12.8%	1583	1395	13.5%
#6	BMW X5	535	505	5.9%	1338	1062	26.0%
#7	Lexus NX	519	444	16.9%	1169	1079	8.3%
#8	BMW X3	500	378	32.3%	1137	951	19.6%
#9	BMW 3-Series	493	723	-31.8%	1429	2000	-28.6%
#10	Audi A4	445	498	-10.6%	818	1103	-25.8%
#11	Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class	440	199	121%	1116	605	84.5%
#12	Acura MDX	431	421	2.4%	1111	998	11.3%
#13	Land Rover Discovery Sport	429	—	—	753	—	—
T14	Land Rover Range Rover Sport	419	320	30.9%	954	824	51.7%
T14	Infiniti QX60	419	320	30.9%	954	824	15.8%

For the purposes of the above list, premium brands include Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Volvo. Brands like Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Lotus don’t report specific monthly sales data. Maserati only reports brand totals. Buick has been excluded with a bunch of other automakers that don’t sell vehicles with base prices higher than $45K.

Rank	Vehicles With Base Prices Above $50K	March 2016	March 2015	% Change	2016 YTD	2015 YTD	% Change
#1	Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class/M-Class	797	594	34.2%	1927	1309	47.2%
#2	Lexus RX	662	587	12.8%	1583	1395	13.5%
#3	BMW X5	535	505	5.9%	1338	1062	26.0%
#4	Acura MDX	431	421	2.4%	1111	998	11.3%
#5	Land Rover Range Rover Sport	419	320	30.9%	954	824	51.7%
#6	Volvo XC90	391	—	—	596	—	—
#7	Audi Q7	382	119	221%	1058	275	285%
#8	Mercedes-Benz E-Class/CLS-Class	364	253	43.9%	914	563	62.3%
#9	Chevrolet Tahoe	277	266	4.1%	613	542	13.1%
#10	Porsche Cayenne	244	176	38.6%	420	358	17.3%
#11	Cadillac Escalade	210	187	12.3%	534	453	17.9%
	Cadillac Escalade *	150	147	2.0%	399	361	10.5%
	Cadillac Escalade ESV	60	40	50.0%	135	92	46.7%
#12	GMC Yukon XL	192	106	81.1%	452	268	68.7%
#13	GMC Yukon	180	141	27.7%	469	372	26.1%
#14	BMW 5-Series	173	110	57.3%	384	380	1.1%
#15	Porsche Macan	164	143	14.7%	410	251	63.3%

Source: Automakers & Global Automakers Of Canada
* Escalade breakdown by variant
$50,000 CDN (before delivery) is an arbitrary borderline, but if GCBC was to follow this new system of designating only expensive vehicles as luxury vehicles, $50K seemed like a safe place to begin – it equals the approximate average U.S. new car transaction price plus $15,000, plus another $5000 to account for Canadian increases. Plenty of less expensive vehicles with specific models feature prices above $50,000 – M, RS, and AMG models come to mind, specifically – but in the case of this list, we know that none of the registrations were of cars priced below $50,000.

Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In Canada – March 2016
Top 20 Best-Selling SUVs In Canada – March 2016
Canada Auto Sales Brand Rankings – March 2016 YTD