Automotive News Canada - May 2018 - 8

8

* MAY 2018

Lot manager credited with whiteout
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 3

"Yes, we did get the whiteout started for automotive dealerships here in Winnipeg. Go
Jets, go!"
Jake Keip, the dealership's
lot manager, is credited with
the idea, but other dealers
were quick to distance themselves from any notion a competitor beat them to it.
"For us, the whiteout just
happened instinctively," said
Rob Townsend, general manager of Jim Pattison's Frontier
Toyota, also on Regent Avenue.
"The staff started moving
white cars to the front and it
just seemed like the right thing
to do."
He said on game days, staff
are encouraged to lose the
usual showroom attire for
Winnipeg Whiteout T-shirts or
white Jets jerseys.
"The mechanics don't want
to wear white," he said, "but
we had the entire staff in white
for a group photo."

A HOCKEY TOWN UNITES
The burst of civic pride has
not gone unnoticed by the Jets,
either.
"It's not just a tagline, 'We
are Winnipeg.' We're all -
players, coaches, management
- proud members of this community," said Rob Wozny, head
of corporate communications
for True North Sports and
Entertainment, which owns
the Jets.
"When we're driving home
from games or practices and
you see white everywhere...

A chilly month, but daily
selling rate up from 2017
Light-truck share
dips slightly;
rising fuel prices
to blame?
By JEREMY SINEK

TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

At Gauthier Chrysler-Dodge-Ram-Jeep, the whiteout extends
into the showroom, which also has balloons in Jets colours
and bearing the team's logo. P H O T O : K E L LY TAY L O R

restaurants, car dealers or
retail, it's a very positive acclamation that we're all in this
together."
The whiteout isn't limited
to the front lot. Inside Gauthier
Chrysler-Dodge-Ram-Jeep, also
on the Regent Avenue strip,
another four white vehicles are
on display, festooned with balloons in Jets colours and bearing the Jets' logo.
The whiteout dates back to
1987, when a marketing executive urged fans to wear white
to playoff games for the original Jets franchise, which
is now the Arizona Coyotes.

When the current Jets organization first made the playoffs
in 2014-'15, the whiteout was
reborn.
Winnipeg's history in the
NHL has made the current
success all the more meaningful. The original Jets broke
the heart of the city when the
team moved to Phoenix in 1996,
leaving Winnipeg without a
stop on the NHL circuit for 15
years. Chipman and publishing mogul David Thomson purchased the Atlanta Thrashers
in 2011 and moved the team to
Winnipeg. The Jets took to the
ice that year. - ANC

QUORUM DMS

DRIVING REVENUE
Quorum DMS Customers Average Over
$70,000 in Additional Customer-pay
Revenue Each Month.
Is your DMS making you money,
or is it just an expense?
Call or Click to Schedule
Your FREE Quorum
Demo Today!

WITH ONE LESS SELLING
day and unseasonably cold
weather in major markets,
it is hardly surprising that
new-vehicle sales dipped 2.7
per cent in April compared
with April 2017. No immediate cause for alarm, either:
The average daily selling
rate actually was 1.4 per cent
higher than a year ago.
And despite April being
a second consecutive down
month, year-to-date sales are
still (just) in the black, up 0.5
per cent over the same period
last year.
Light trucks (up 2.4 per
cent) continued to gain share
at the expense of passenger
cars (down 12.6 per cent),
growing their share to 69.8
per cent this April versus
66.2 per cent in April 2017.
However, perhaps
acknowledging rising fuel
prices in much of Canada,
the truck share in April was
down from 71.7 per cent in
the first quarter of this year.
This, in a month that witnessed Ford revealing its
plan to stop selling most of
its sedan models in North
America. A month, too, in
which the Ford brand bucked
the trend by growing its own
car sales six per cent while
its light-truck sales edged
down two per cent.
Were Ford car loyalists already operating in
"get-'em-while-we-still-can"
mode? That would seem a
bit improbable, yet four of
the five remaining Ford car
nameplates increased sales
in April, while seven of the
nine Ford light-truck lines
dropped. Car results do not
count the GT supercar or
the C-Max, which is being
phased out; truck results
omit the new EcoSport.
The only other brands that
grew their car sales in April
while their light-truck sales
shrank were Audi (whose
A5 sales continue to flourish
since the launch of the fivedoor version), Acura (led by
the TLX) and Porsche (with
strong Panamera sales).

FORD EDGES GM

quorumdms.com

877.770.0036

Back to the big picture,
GM Canada's five-per-cent
decline dropped it behind
Ford (down one per cent)
in April but it remains the
top-selling automaker yearto-date. FCA's 16-per-cent
slump left it a distant third.
The new Jeep Wrangler
is still riding high, and the
Dodge Caravan had a strong
month, but FCA's totals
were hit by steeply lower
Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge
Journey and Ram pickup
sales. A year ago, Dodge Dart

Mitsubishi sold more plugin hybrid versions of the
Outlander than petrol-powered. P H O T O : M I T S U B I S H I

and Chrysler 200 sedans sold
1,253, which is now zero.
The Ram pickup is in
transition to a new generation; Danny Diamantakos,
dealer principal of Peel
Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram
in Mississauga, Ont., said
he didn't have any shortage
of run-out models, but some
customers may be waiting
for the new one.
While Detroit declined
a combined seven per cent
in April, the offshore-based
automakers eked out a oneper-cent gain. That was the
net result of buoyant sales
for the Europeans (led by a
42-per cent boost for Volvo),
inconsistent performance by
the Korea-based makes (Kia
up one per cent, Hyundai
down 14 per cent) and mixed
results for the Japan-based
brands (Honda down, Toyota
effectively flat, the remainder modestly up).
Hyundai Canada's results
included 100 first-full-month
sales of the new Genesis G70,
which helped quadruple combined sales for the Genesis
brand, but not nearly enough
to offset weakness at the
Hyundai brand. Once again,
strong sales of the new Kona
utility vehicle were accompanied by sharply lower sales
of the existing Tucson and
Santa Fe Sport.
A seemingly modest
3.4-per-cent gain for Subaru
Canada netted that automaker an all-time monthly sales
record.
Also of note: Mitsubishi
sold more units of the plugin hybrid Outlander in April
(589) than of the regular version (492), claiming the best
single-month sales of any
plug-in hybrid, ever. - ANC

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Compared with the
same month a year ago
Lincoln MKT: +175%
Volvo XC60: +141%
Porsche Panamera: +116%
Lincoln Navigator: +113%
Infiniti QX70: +107%
Fiat 500X: -92%
Fiat 124 Spider: -83%
Infiniti QX30: -78%
Ford C-Max: -78%
Kia Rondo: -77%
Fiat 500: -76%
Dodge Journey: -76%
VW Jetta: -71%

FULL OF SURPRISES

Lexus LS: +467%
Audi A5: +288%
Nissan Leaf: +187%
Toyota Land Cruiser: +178%
http://www.quorumdms.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - May 2018
