Sales of new motor vehicles fell 14.8% in December to 109,831 units, Statistics Canada said Friday.

This was the largest monthly decline and lowest sales level since January 1998, when an ice storm crippled parts of the country.

After sharp declines in November and December, preliminary industry data indicate that the number of new motor vehicles sold rose by about 6% in January, the the government statistical agency said.

Sales of new trucks (which include minivans, sport-utility vehicles, light and heavy trucks, vans and buses) fell 20.4% in December to 50,997 units. This was the largest decrease for this vehicle type since January 1998, StatsCan said.

Sales of passenger cars declined 9.2% to 58,834 units in December. This decline reflects lower sales of North American built passenger cars, which fell 14.8%. StatsCan noted that this was the largest decline by passenger cars of this origin since January 2007. Sales of overseas-built passenger cars were flat.

New motor vehicle sales were down in all provinces in December. The largest drops were in Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Ontario, with sales declines of over 15% each.

IE