RICHMOND HILL, Ontario -

Canadian new-vehicle sales climbed more than 6 percent in August and are up close to 7 percent on the year, leading analyst Dennis DesRosiers to call the month, “Great but not spectacular,” in his recent look at the market.

Overall, there were 149,301 new units sold in Canada last month, according to data in the latest Market Snapshot from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.

"Consumers and fleets bought 149.3 thousand vehicles in August, which is the strongest since 2007 when sales were almost 160,000 units," said Desrosiers. It was also a 6.4-percent uptick from August 2011.

The year-to-date sum is at 1.16 million vehicles, which is a 6.7-percent gain, meaning “August tracked exactly at the market trend for the year,” DesRosiers indicated.

“This level of sales means that on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, sales this year are at 1.66 million units. We should be happy with a 6-plus-percent increase in the market and anything north of 1.6 million units,” he commented.

“However, in previous cyclical upswings, Canada normally was able to manage growth in the double digits and should be above 1.7 million units.  So this year the market is good but not great, and is underperforming compared to previous cycles,” DesRosiers added.

He went on to break the month down by OEMs.

Among the more remarkable performances that DesRosiers mentioned  were those of Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura, Subaru, Kia, Volkswagen and Land Rover.

“All of them are tracking above the Canadian market for the month and for the year to date,” he pointed out. “In addition, almost all the luxury brands are doing very well this year.”

Conversely, DesRosiers noted that, “Detroit is still struggling.”

Sales for the Big 3 were down almost 4 percent year-over-year in August with 66,974 units sold between Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Year-to-date sales through August are essentially even with year-ago figures, as the Detroit automakers sold 526,908 new vehicles in eight months.