Ford, Chrysler left behind as small cars rule in Canada

[VivienM]

Originally Posted by throwback

This is very interesting. I would think Renault would be able to get their cars into Canada fairly easily. The Megane shares the same platform as the Sentra for example. I would imagine from a regulatory perspective this should not be too difficult, but it seems otherwise. I wonder if Canadian Nissan dealers would be interested in selling Renaults since small cars do so well in Canada.

I'm not sure Renault has much of a reputation...

They sold well in the mid-80s to French expatriates living in Quebec, I think, but aside from that, I don't think their reputation for quality was good at all...

Why not just sell the thing as the Sentra? Are the Clio and Versa on the same platform too? Nissan is a far more established brand than Renault...

[VivienM]

Originally Posted by shelby

I'm not sure of the exact timeframe, but I do know that the Chrysler dealership I work at once sold Renault cars along side our domestics. I'm not sure if it was during the Jeep/Eagle/AMC days or more recently.

It was before...

You had Renault-Jeep dealers. Then in 1987 or 1988, Renault sold off their North American operations to Chrysler... and that, plus AMC (which I think Renault might have owned in some way?), gave rise to Eagle.

The Eagle Premier, for example, was nothing other than a rebadged Renault...

[VivienM]

Originally Posted by t-rex

Regulations aside, would cars like the Polo, Clio, or even something like the Ford EcoSport appeal to Canadian tastes?

I'm the wrong person to ask... honestly, as far as I'm concerned, anything smaller than a GM W body is unacceptably small. And I like my engines with pushrods and at least 6 cylinders...

I think the small car trend is more pronounced in Quebec than elsewhere, honestly... though there are tons of Mazda3s and Civics everywhere.

[86'er]

Originally Posted by VivienM

I'm the wrong person to ask... honestly, as far as I'm concerned, anything smaller than a GM W body is unacceptably small. And I like my engines with pushrods and at least 6 cylinders...

I think the small car trend is more pronounced in Quebec than elsewhere, honestly... though there are tons of Mazda3s and Civics everywhere.

Ditto, I like cars big, if I were to ever own a car instead of a truck it'd have to be a Marquis or DTS-sized beast...

In Saskatchewan trucks are definitely prominent, although it's somewhat fewer half-tons and more 3/4 and up as befits our farm/ranch life. I currently reside in Regina and there the car is dominant; I'd say probably a half-half mix of compacts and intermediates.

[BlueMontreal]

Originally Posted by t-rex

This thread reminded of a question I pondered a while back — whether or not European small cars like the Renault Clio, Ford Fiesta, or VW Polo or Derby would be successful in Canada, given the preference for small cars there. It would seem that Canadians shy from mainstream Euro products much like Americans do, whether they're small cars or not. Any of our fine neighbors to the North like to enlighten us?

In Quebec, we like small car. We buy the Smart (around 22 000 $ CAN) and the MINI is a success. We like the Mazda3 loaded and the Acura CSX. And for a long time, about half of the NA Vw sales were in Quebec.

[IAMCANADIAN]

Originally Posted by Ming

Sounds good from the customer's standpoint, but GM was losing money on them big time at those prices. And despite the updated engines, the platform and interiors were so old that they were a constant source of ridicule when compared to Corolla/Civic. GM didn't really have any choice but to take the Cavalier replacement upscale (in pricing, platform and styling inside and out) with the Cobalt, so it could afford to keep building cars of that size. Remember that the MSRP for a top of the line Sunfire was something like 8-9 thousand dollars more than a stripper "value" Cobalt (the 10 thousand buck special) in the last days of the J-body. That left the stage ready for the inexpensive Aveo to come in, which GM (Daewoo) can still make money on at the price they sell for.

True, but even with a revised exterior/interior it wouldn't have been such a bad idea considering I've hardly seen any Aveos and Waves where I still see tons of Sunfires and Cavaliers around (these are 2003-2005 models btw). If GM was able to price the Sunfire/Cavalier below the G5/Cobalt and change options and trim levels and features a bit and sell it for what they sell the Wave and Aveo now (which is a bit more than what they sold base Sunfires/Cavaliers for), they could've done fairly well with it. While the Aveo and Wave are decent little cars, I'd rather buy a competitor or spend the extra money on a G5 or Cobalt.