Total light vehicle sales have stayed essentially flat over the past 12 years. Highly modified designs of light truck platforms have supplanted a significant portion of traditional passenger car usage. Canadian trends closely parallel U.S. trends. Canadians tend to buy smaller cars than Americans. Employment in the Canadian automotive industry has remained relatively constant since 1985, while output has increased significantly.
Canadian plants reflect world-class standards.
The 1996 report by Harbour and Associates Inc. estimates Chrysler Canada Ltd. uses only 2.54 workers per day to assemble a car at its Bramalea, Ontario, facility, making it the most productive North American Big Three plant in 1996. Toyota's Cambridge, Ontario, facility, at 2.35 workers per day, is the most productive plant in Canada. The 1996 study of the worldwide auto industry by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology placed Canada second in productivity, behind only Japan and ahead of the United States, European countries, Korea and Australia. Since 1989, Canadian plants have increased productivity rapidly, and now fewer people are required to achieve the same output in Canadian assembly plants than in U.S. plants. In the aftermarket distribution sector, UAP Inc. received the Canadian-American Business Achievement Award for 1995.