Richmond Hill, Ontario – Sales of subcompact cars, compact cars and compact SUVs surged in March, according to industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers.

“A month where high gas prices dominated the headlines and these high prices were totally reflected in the vehicles consumers in Canada purchased,” DesRosiers said. “Subcompact cars were up 27.1 per cent, compact cars up 9.7 per cent, compact SUVs up 6.9 per cent all reflect the response to high gas prices. Meanwhile, large SUVs were down 27.6 per cent, luxury SUVs down 10.2 per cent, large vans down 25.2 per cent.

“Indeed, if you add together all the large and luxury and sporty models for the month, they were collectively down 16.3 per cent in a market that was essentially flat. All entry-level vehicles together were up 9.7 per cent for the month and are now up 16.4 per cent on the year. During March, if it wasn’t small, it didn’t sell well.”

The top ten best-selling passenger cars in Canada in March were, in order, the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Mazda3, Toyota Yaris, Chevrolet Cobalt, Toyota Camry, Nissan Versa, Hyundai Accent, Pontiac G5 and Toyota Matrix.

The top ten year-to-date, in order, were in the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Mazda3, Chevrolet Cobalt, Toyota Yaris, Pontiac G5, Toyota Camry, Hyundai Accent, Nissan Versa and Ford Focus.

The top ten best-selling light trucks in Canada in March were, in order, the Ford F-Series, Dodge Ram, Dodge Caravan, GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Silverado, Ford Escape, Ford Ranger, Honda CR-V, Chevrolet Uplander and Toyota RAV4.

The top ten year-to-date, in order, were the Ford F-Series, Dodge Caravan, Dodge Ram, GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Silverado, Ford Escape, Ford Ranger, Honda CR-V, Chevrolet Uplander and Toyota RAV4.