Driving By Numbers: 5 vehicles Canadians love that Americans don't

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We have poutine and donairs; they have grits and fried chicken with waffles. We go crazy for hockey; they fill stadiums for football. Our currency now starts with a nickel; they still use pennies. Metric versus Imperial; parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy versus a republic; 154 years old compared with 245 years old.

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You get the idea. Canada and the United States of America are not two sides of the same coin. We’re different. We like different things. And we drive different cars.

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Driving By Numbers: 5 vehicles Canadians love that Americans don't Back to video

Sometimes.

Many best sellers south of the border are best sellers in Canada, as well. Just look at the top of the list: Ford’s F-Series is a consistent No.1 in both countries. Other leaders of the pack such as the Honda Civic and Toyota RAV4 are well-loved in both Canada and the U.S.

Yet, even among popular models, Canadian and American tastes do not always align. Sure, they love pickups and we love pickups. But Canadians were quicker and more eager to snap up small SUVs, and the U.S. appetite for traditional sedans – while weakening – is still far more voracious than Canada’s.

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Rather than make any unfair assumptions based on those facts, however, we dug deep into the details from North America’s first-quarter sales info. First, we calculated the market share produced by every vehicle on both sides of the border. Then we removed every vehicle that was either cancelled, all-new, or returning from hiatus. To focus on models we all know well, we crossed out vehicles producing less than 0.5 per cent market share. And then we figured out the difference in market share for the remaining vehicles.

That left us with this list: five vehicles that are far more successful in Canada than in the United States and five vehicles that are far more successful in the United States than here in Canada.

Successful in Canada

Hyundai Venue

Historically, Canadians were more apt to turn to subcompact cars. Goods and fuel are more costly here, so Canadians turned to the smallest and most affordable cars to save money. These days, car buyers are content to spend more thanks to longer-term loans and low interest rates. In other words, the Hyundai Accent – Hyundai’s subcompact car – is dead; the Hyundai Venue slots into its space as a subcompact crossover. The Hyundai Venue owns 0.5 per cent of the overall Canadian light vehicle market, which means its Canadian market share is 258 per cent stronger than its U.S. market share. Canadians acquired 2,021 Venues in 2021’s first-quarter. In a U.S. market that’s 10-times larger, actual Venue volume wasn’t quite three times stronger.

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Hyundai Kona

Surprise, surprise. Not only is one subcompact Hyundai crossover far more popular in Canada than in the U.S., so too is its bigger brother, the Hyundai Kona. In fact, the Kona is Canada’s top-selling subcompact crossover by a huge margin. Of all new vehicles sold in Canada, 1.8 per cent are Konas, which makes its market share 210 per cent stronger here than in the U.S. In Canada, 6,860 Konas were sold in Q1 compared with 22,610 in the U.S., which is equal to a far weaker 0.6 per cent market share. Canada’s top-ranked subcompact crossover ranks fourth in its segment in the U.S.

Mazda3

Before the Toyota Corolla served as the Honda Civic’s top challenger in Canada, and before the Hyundai Elantra consistently earned the silver medal position, the Mazda3 made a push to be Canada’s best-selling car. The Mazda3 never achieved the No.1 ranking on an annual basis, and sales are far, far, far less voluminous now. But the 3 is still a relatively common car in Canada with 0.7 per cent market share across the industry. That’s 171 per cent stronger than in the U.S., where only 9,992 3s were sold in Q1. In Canada’s small market, Mazda sold 2,657 3s in the first three months of 2021.

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Kia Seltos

The assumed challenge of launching an all-new nameplate just as the pandemic struck appeared to be no challenge whatsoever for the Kia Seltos—at least in Canada. The Seltos grabs nearly 1 per cent of Canada’s new vehicle buyers, more than double the market share the Seltos achieves in the U.S. The Seltos volume totalled 3,452 units in 2021’s first-quarter. The Seltos attracted 16,786 U.S. buyers during the same period.

Nissan Kicks

There’s no doubt the Kicks has served Nissan well on both sides of the border at a time Nissan desperately required an affordable hit. With no Micra and no Versa Note, the front-wheel-drive-only Kicks is positioned as a crossover with the price of an entry-level car. The Kicks produced 4,423 first-quarter sales in 2021, good enough for 1.2 per cent market share. That’s 85 per cent stronger than the Kicks U.S. share, which sits just above 0.5 per cent.

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Successful in the U.S.

Nissan Altima

On both sides of the 49th parallel, the intermediate sedan is floundering. Year after year, midsize cars – the traditional family sedan – are facing precipitous sales declines. They do, however, still generate far more volume in the U.S. than in Canada, as evidenced by the Nissan Altima. It’s the sixth-best-selling car overall in the United States with 0.8 per cent of the market and 32,017 sales in 2021’s first-quarter. In Canada, the Altima ranks 39th, barely registering with less than 0.1 per cent of the market, outsold by low-volume vehicles such as the Lexus IS, Chevrolet Camaro, and BMW 2 Series. The Altima’s U.S. market share is 860 per cent stronger.

Honda Accord

Highly regarded since its 10th-generation introduction for the 2018 model year, the Honda Accord is nevertheless a wildly less common car than it was, even in the relatively recent past. The Accord’s decline, however, began from a much higher level in the midsize-happy U.S. market, where its market share of 1.2 per cent is 246 per cent stronger than its Canadian efforts. In both countries, the Accord is No.2 in its segment, but U.S. sales of 46,591 in Q1 dwarf the 1,317-unit Canadian total.

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Toyota Camry

America’s best-selling car isn’t a non-event in Canada. In fact, it’s Canada’s best-selling midsize car. But midsize cars in Canada are generally unloved. 78,151 Camry sales in the U.S. in 2021’s first three months produced market share of 2 per cent, more than triple the share (235 per cent better, to be precise) the Camry earned in Canada. Bear in mind, the Camry owned nearly 3 per cent of the U.S. market in 2010.

Hyundai Sonata

If it’s not yet clear that Americans will still snap up midsize cars at an unimaginable-in-Canada rate, let the Hyundai Sonata join the Camry, Accord, and Altima in stating the case. The Hyundai Sonata owns 0.5 per cent of the U.S. market. That’s roughly 1 out of every 200 auto sales, and it’s 216 per cent greater market share than the Sonata earns north of the border, where the Sonata is an afterthought with less than 0.2 per cent of the market.

Dodge Charger

Although traditionally classified as a full-size sedan, the Dodge Charger suits the role played by other vehicles Americans love that Canadians don’t: it’s a big family sedan. The Charger and Sonata, incidentally, sell almost in parallel, with similar numbers on both sides of the border. 19,740 Chargers were sold in the U.S. in Q1; only 417 in Canada.