Driving By Numbers: Canada's 10 worst-selling vehicles in 2021's first-half

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There’s no need to be embarrassed. For every auto brand represented on Driving ‘s list of Canada’s 10 worst-selling vehicles, automakers have their fair share of success stories, as well.

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On the one hand there’s a Toyota Avalon; on the other there’s a Toyota RAV4, Canada’s best-selling SUV. While Nissan Maxima sales are down 47 percent, Nissan also sells a Rogue that’s up 77 percent. Volkswagen’s Arteon may attract next to no attention, but Volkswagen’s lineup of crossovers has nearly doubled its first-half volume.

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Yet, the failure of Canada’s worst-selling vehicles can’t be overlooked. They’re a mish-mash group of vehicles that, more often than not, do a poor job of competing segments that are on the outs: subcompact cars and full-size sedans, for example. More than at any point in the last decade, the inability of certain vehicles to gain momentum is downright conspicuous.

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The market is in rebound mode. The recovery is rapid. Yes, there are supply constraints limiting the volume of some models — Canada’s top-selling Ford F-Series is losing market share hand over fist due to microchip shortages — but there’s still overwhelming forward progress. In the first-half of 2021, Canadian auto sales are up 33 percent. Second-quarter volume jumped 52 percent, a gain of around 55,000 sales per month .

There’s a long list of extremely low-volume vehicles in the Canadian market. We’re not talking about most of them. To establish our list of the worst-selling vehicles in 2021’s first-half, we exclude premium brands — that means there’s no Maserati Quattroporte or Porsche Taycan on this list. Then we exclude vehicles over $100,000, which wipes out the Nissan GT-R and Ford GT. We knock out two-seaters, as well, which renders ineligible the Nissan 370Z and Toyota Supra, among others. Finally, vehicles are only eligible for our worst sellers list if they’re not formally discontinued, if they brought a 2021 model year to market, and if they were on sale by 2021. This means there’s no Subaru BRZ, Dodge Journey, or Volkswagen Taos on the list, despite their low volume.

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That leaves 10 vehicles, all of which found fewer than 500 new owners in 2021’s first six months.

10. Mitsubishi Mirage: 495, down 29 percent

Canada’s appetite for affordable cars is difficult to define. Canadians do want low payments, but they’ll find a way to acquire a sufficiently low payment with either long-term leasing or even longer-term financing if it allows them to drive home in, say, a small crossover or larger compact car. The Mitsubishi Mirage competes on the small, less desirable end of a subcompact car segment that now accounts for just 1 percent of the Canadian vehicle market, down from 1.4 percent a year ago.

9. Subaru Legacy: 437, down 12 percent

While the Subaru Legacy has never been capable of even remotely challenging the dominant midsize sedan players — Toyota Camry and Honda Accord — it’s now positioned at the bottom of a segment that’s in progressively worse shape. The Legacy’s more popular competitors have dropped off the face of the Earth over the last decade — the Mazda 6, which outsells the Legacy by 158 percent, is the latest to exit due to poor demand. The Legacy’s Outback sibling generates more than enough volume to make the Legacy’s eventual demise acceptable. 5,004 Outbacks were sold in 2021’s first six months.

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8. Nissan Maxima: 344, down 47 percent

Originally branded as the 4DSC (four-door sports car), the eighth-generation Nissan Maxima is now in its sixth model year. Demand is wilting. Just as the market bounces back, Maxima sales drop off even further. Other Nissan cars, such as the Sentra that’s up 103 percent so far this year and the Altima that’s up 9 percent, are attempting to justify their continued existence. The Maxima, meanwhile, is making a fair case for discontinuation.

7. Nissan Armada: 339, up 193 percent

The full-size SUV sector, for reasons that are challenging to fully apprehend, is just the sort of segment that performed well as the market pushes back against last year’s pandemic pause. The Armada and its primarily Detroit competition produced a collective 85-percent year-over-year sales improvement, far exceeding the market’s 33-percent growth. However, despite major percentage growth, the Armada is a small fish in a big pond — its market share amounts to just 3.2 percent.

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6. Hyundai Veloster: 328, down 20 percent

The second-generation Hyundai Veloster is a favourite of enthusiast auto writers who praise the wickedly rapid and ultra-grippy Veloster N. The Veloster N, however, isn’t a quirky coupe for the young buyer searching for an alternative to the defunct Civic Coupe — it costs $37,799 before taxes and fees. The entry-level $22,449 Velosters are long gone. The market for an off-beat hot hatch with an extra passenger door isn’t exactly vast. Consider the fact that Subaru’s more practical WRX/STI sedan lineup found 1,548 buyers in 2021’s first six months.

5. Toyota Sequoia: 239, up 54 percent

If the aforementioned Nissan Armada is a small fish in an increasingly big full-size SUV pond, what does that make the Toyota Sequoia? Only 2.3 percent of the buyers in the Toyota Sequoia’s segment choose a Sequoia, which has largely been the same second-gen Tundra-based vehicle since George W. Bush was finishing up his presidency. The Sequoia competes in a GM-owned segment: the Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, and Yukon XL control 70 percent of the full-size segment.

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4. Honda Insight: 193, up 11 percent

More than two decades ago, the modern green car movement as we know it was kickstarted by the first-generation Honda Insight hybrid and, shortly thereafter, the Toyota Prius. Though beloved by the Honda faithful, the first Insight set Honda off on the wrong foot as an impractical two-seater. By 2003, the Prius was a practical family hatchback. Honda never caught up, and while this third-generation Insight is an attractive and perfectly reasonable Civic or Accord alternative, there is virtually no Canadian demand. The most affordable Insight, if you can find one on a dealer lot, costs roughly $4,000 more than a Civic LX and is likely to save only around $550 per year in fuel.

3. Volkswagen Arteon: 168, up 8 percent

When you think of the Volkswagen Arteon, think of the Nissan Maxima, only at a much higher price point and without the Maxima’s history. Just as the Maxima struggles to generate any meaningful volume at a semi-premium price point, the Arteon produces quantifiably less volume at a much higher price point. Volkswagen wants to sell the Arteon at an Audi-like price of $52,995. It doesn’t work.

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2. Jeep Renegade: 113, down 40 percent

2021 belongs to the subcompact crossover. Just not this subcompact crossover. The majority of the Renegade’s segment is booming — sales are up 59 percent this year, driving subcompact SUV/CUV market share up to 11 percent. That’s because of vehicles such as the Hyundai Kona (up 67 percent to 15,715 in 2021’s first-half), Mazda CX-30 (up 83 percent to 5,995), and Kia Seltos, which added 1,444 sales in June alone. The Renegade’s market share is a paltry 0.1 percent.

1. Toyota Avalon: 102, up 12 percent

The Ford Taurus, Chevrolet Impala, and Buick LaCrosse are dead. The Kia Cadenza joined its long-departed Hyundai Azera sibling in the graveyard. Premium-badged alternatives such as the Lincoln MKZ are quickly forgotten. How long will Toyota persist with a full-size sedan that produces fewer than 20 Canadian sales per month? It’s not as though Toyota doesn’t offer alternatives. There’s little the Avalon can do that the Camry can’t, and there’s always the Lexus ES for customers who want a distinctly premium flair.