It appears more Canadians have driven a Ford pickup lately than any other vehicle in Canada, with the auto maker's F-series truck set to dethrone the Dodge Caravan minivan as the best-selling vehicle in the country.

With one month's worth of sales left to be reported this year, Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. has sold 62,822 of the pickups, compared with 57,626 Caravans sold by DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc.
That level of sales is a 25-per-cent slump for Caravan from sales recorded in the first 11 months of 2002. Canadians purchased 83,588 Caravans in all of last year. F-series pickup sales are essentially flat.

The drop in Caravan sales was part of a negative trend for Canadian automotive manufacturing - the decline of the minivan segment.

Minivan sales over all in the first 11 months of the year slid 14 per cent in Canada to 184,668 from 215,759.

It's worrisome because minivan production represented 24 per cent of Canada's output of 2.6 million vehicles in 2002 and keeps about 10,000 workers employed at three Ontario assembly plants.

"Canadians are finally moving away from the minivan," said industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc., who compiled the sales statistics.

Mr. DesRosiers said Americans now buy fewer than half as many minivans as Canadians (on a market share basis) and three times as many sport utility vehicles. "Maybe Canadians are also moving in this direction."

The good news for Canada is that the four best-selling vehicles in the country are actually made here and five of the top 10 best sellers are manufactured in Canada, even though all vehicle assembly plants here are geared toward U.S. sales and about 80 per cent of our total automotive output is shipped to the U.S. market.

F-series pickups are assembled in Oakville, Ont., although a redesigned version of the pickup that went on sale last summer is not put together in Oakville and that Ford plant is scheduled to close next year. Caravans are assembled in Windsor, Ont.

The best-selling passenger car in Canada - the Honda Civic compact car - is assembled in Alliston, Ont., by Honda of Canada Manufacturing.

The second-best-selling car is the Toyota Corolla, which is assembled at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. in Cambridge, Ont.

The Chevrolet Silverado pickup, which ranked seventh on the best-selling vehicle list, is assembled at a General Motors of Canada Ltd., plant in Oshawa, Ont., one of several General Motors Corp. plants that puts together GM's pickup trucks.

Top 10 selling light vehicles in Canada

Passenger cars              2003*     2002*     Change#


Honda Civic Sedan/Coupe    59,652    65,167     -8.5%


Toyota Corolla             46,643    42,311    +10.2


Chevrolet Cavalier         39,017    48,508    -19.6


Mazda Protegé/Mazda3       37,777    46,479    -18.7


Pontiac Sunfire            33,624    41,397    -18.8


Ford Focus                 33,550    37,720    -11.1


Honda Accord               27,786    27,261     +1.9


Chevrolet Impala           23,714    17,514    +35.4


Toyota Echo                23,649    22,096     +7.0


Hyundai Accent             23,004    25,198     -8.7

Light trucks................2003*.....2002*.....Change#

Ford F-Series              62,822    62,806      0.0%


Dodge Cara./Grand Cara     57,626    77,192    -25.3


Chevrolet Silverado        34,822    38,467     -9.5


Dodge Ram Pickup           33,460    29,285    +14.3


GMC Sierra                 33,186    34,604     -4.1


Ford Windstar              28,425    34,968    -18.7


Pontiac Montana            27,812    30,684     -9.4


Chevrolet Venture          20,987    24,410    -14.0


Ford Explorer              19,442    21,608    -10.0


Ford Escape                16,852    14,353    +17.4

* Jan. 1 to Nov. 30; # Year-over-year per cent change

SOURCE: DESROSIERS AUTOMOTIVE CONSULTANTS INC.