TORONTO -- While some Canadian automakers saw their sales rise in May as the spring selling season got underway, others posted losses compared to last year.
Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda all posted sales increases over May 2012, while Kia and Nissan saw their sales decline from a year earlier.
Ford Motor Company of Canada said truck sales helped boost its May sales figures 0.5 per cent higher to 32,490 vehicles, up from 32,338 last year.
Truck sales rose 4.6 per cent to 23,537, from 22,509 a year earlier. However, Ford saw its car sales drop by 8.9 per cent to 8,953, from 9,829 last May.
Sales for the year to date totalled 117,987, up 5.7 per cent for the first five months of 2012, when Ford sold 111,638 cars and light trucks.
Meanwhile, Chrysler Canada said it sold 12 per cent more vehicles this May compared to the previous year, but still fell short of Ford's total.
Chrysler sold 29,249 vehicles last month, compared to 26,218 a year ago, helped by strong sales of its passenger cars and Ram trucks.
Chrysler said passenger car sales grew by 24 per cent.
The automaker said it sold 113,012 vehicles in the first five months of the year, up six per cent from the 106,581 year-to-date sales in May 2012.
Toyota Canada Inc. sold 22,250 vehicles in May, including its Lexus and Scion brands. That's 12.3 per cent more than the Japanese automaker sold in May 2012.
Toyota Canada's truck sales totalled 8,550 for the month, a gain of 14.2 per cent, while Lexus sales grew 11.9 per cent to 1,566 and Scion sales were up 62.9 per cent to 601.
Passenger car sales were up 11.3 per cent from last May, to 20,083.
Honda Canada Inc. sold 16,723 vehicles, including in its Acura division, up 22 per cent from last May.
"The spring selling season is underway and this is the type of momentum we really like to see," said Honda's vice president of sales and marketing Dave Gardner in a statement.
Meanwhile, Kia Canada Inc. saw its sales decline to 7,558 in May, 10.7 per cent lower than May 2012.
Nissan's Canadian sales were also down in May.
The automaker sold 8,367 vehicles, 9.1 per cent lower than last May's total of 9,204.
Sales at its Infiniti division were down 11.8 per cent to 733.
