Toyota Camry regains spot as Canada's top-selling midsize ahead of Ford Fusion

2015 Toyota Camry (photo: Toyota)

It’s been a two-horse race for midsize car supremacy in Canada for the last decade.

The Toyota Camry landed the first blows, finishing 2006, 2007 and 2008 as Canada’s best-selling midsize car. The Ford Fusion followed that up with its own three-year streak as the top dog in the midsize segment from 2009-11. Camry then regained control in 2012 only for the Fusion to once again finish as top-selling midsize car in each of the last two years.

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It hasn’t been all sunshine and roses for the second-generation Fusion of late though. Much like Canada’s overall midsize category, Fusion sales actually declined in 2014 despite finishing as the category'e best-seller. The Fusion held on to its best-selling status despite an 11 per cent drop in volume last year as most its chief rivals – including the Camry – posted even more dramatic declines. In fact, the midsize segment slid 11 per cent as a whole in 2014 even as Canada’s auto industry soared to record high levels.

The Present

So far in 2015, Fusion sales have continued to slide. Through the first seven months of the year, Fusion volume is down 15 per cent, a 1,687 unit decrease for Ford dealers across the country. The category as a whole is down 3 per cent with sharp declines being reported by the Honda Accord (down 20 per cent), Nissan Altima (down 21 per cent), Volkswagen Passat (down 24 per cent), Kia Optima (down 38 per cent), and Mazda 6 (down 14 per cent).

Sales of the Camry, on the other hand, are rising rapidly. Through seven months, the refreshed-for-2015 Camry is up 13 per cent to 10,745 units. With five months remaining on the calendar, the Camry already leads the second-ranked Fusion by more than 1,000 sales.

Toyota’s share of the core intermediate segment grew to 16 per cent through the end of July, a gain of two percentage points. In fact, the Camry’s market share through the first seven months of 2015 is two percentage points higher than it was the last time it led the midsize category, in 2012 and Toyota is on track to sell more Camrys in 2015 than at any point since 2008.

The Bigger Picture

While Camry is certainly a feel good story for Toyota, the news is even better for the Japanese automaker when one takes into consideration the far more popular Corolla. Ranked second among cars overall so far this year, the Corolla is actually the only one of Canada’s seven best-selling cars to have recorded a year-over-year Canadian sales improvement so far in 2015. While the Corolla’s 1 per cent volume gain is modest, it does make the compact Toyota Canada's prime Honda Civic challenger as other key Civic alternatives like the Hyundai Elantra, Mazda 3, and Chevrolet Cruze are fading rapidly.

Toyota actually sells about three Corollas for every Camry in Canada. While Americans continue to buy more Camry-class cars than Corolla-class cars, the midsize category is a relatively minor part of the overall Canadian auto market due to the strength of small cars and the continuous rise of small SUVs and crossovers. (Toyota Canada also sells more than two RAV4s for every Camry.) Only 15 per cent of passenger cars sold in Canada are midsize products, and that segment's share of the overall new vehicle market has fallen by nearly one-half of a percentage point through the first seven months of 2015 compared with the same period last year.

What this all means is that while the Camry is clearly back to its winning ways and it’s slice of the midsize pie is growing, the actual pie is shrinking.

Not Over Yet

As for the Fusion, don’t count out the Blue Oval just yet. In the month of July alone, the Fusion was actually Canada’s best-selling midsize car thanks to a 25 per cent year-over-year increase from July 2014 to 2,013 units. The Camry meanwhile ranked third for the month, some 684 sales back of the Ford.