Best-Selling Cars: 10 American-made vehicles that took off in 2025

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Perhaps more than at any point in history, the early stages of 2025 were filled with Buy Canadian sentiment. But did the sentiment result in an actual change in consumer behaviour?

Copious tariff threats from Donald Trump – and the execution thereof, at least in part – led Canadians to download apps such as Maple Scan or Buy Beaver. Canadian retailers took action, as well, with brands such as Loblaws applying “T” labels to tariff-imposed products coming from the United States. Early indications suggest that Canadians are also cancelling cross-border travel plans in favour of interprovincial travel.

What about cars? Canadians aren’t short on opportunity to buy vehicles that were either made in Canada (or other non-U.S. markets). Canada’s two best-selling SUVs and best-selling car are all made in Canada. Canadians can choose Canadian-made minivans and luxury utility vehicles, as well, plus certain GM full-size pickups.

Yet in the first-half of 2025, and in some cases the second-quarter in particular, many U.S.-built vehicles enjoyed serious sales improvements north of the border. Canadians, clearly anticipating potential tariff-elevated pricing, flocked to a very wide variety of American-made models over the last number of months, acting in stark contrast to the popular belief that Maple Leaf patriotism was changing habits.

These 10 American-made success stories from early 2025 suggest that elbows are actually down. And wallets are open.

GM Full-Size SUVs

Big, body-on-frame SUVs are a General Motors staple. In 2024, GM’s Chevrolet/GMC quartet – Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, Yukon XL – ate up 69% of the Canadian market for full-size volume-brand SUVs. Factoring in the Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV, this group of six enormous SUVs from Arlington, Texas, generated 9,486 first-half sales in 2025, a 9% year-over-year improvement.

Honda’s Alabama Quartet

Two SUVs, a pickup, and a minivan – Honda builds an important foursome at its assembly plant in Lincoln, Alabama. The Odyssey, Passport, Pilot, and Ridgeline combined for 10,817 first-half sales, a 32% year-over-year increase. That includes a 56% Q2 improvement with all four models growing in excess of 35%. For a brand such as Honda, that produced over 200,000 vehicles in Canada in the first-half of 2025, the Canadian federal government’s United States Surtax Remission Order “is designed to allow Canadian-based producers to import a certain quantity of U.S.-assembled vehicles tariff-free, provided they maintain Canadian-based production.”

Indiana’s Minivan

The Alabama-built Honda Odyssey, which generated a 31% boost in first-half Canadian sales, isn’t the only U.S.-built minivan on the mend. The hybrid Toyota Sienna is built in Princeton, Indiana, alongside the Lexus TX and Toyota’s Highlander family. Sienna sales jumped 21% in the first-half, including a 42% surge to 4,177 sales in Q2.

A Cancelled Mazda

One of the first nameplates to be eliminated from Canadian contention due to the tariff scenario was Mazda’s CX-50. Mazda Canada clearly decided to sell what they could when they could, and first-half sales jumped 32% to 6,258 units. Mazda dealers still have a vehicle in this category: the brand’s best-selling CX-5. That CX-5 will be all-new in early 2026.

Frontier & Murano

Don’t expect to see sales increases from this duo (or their Nissan Pathfinder sibling) in the second-half of 2025. Nissan is – at least temporarily – cancelling Canadian imports of the Frontier pickup, recently overhauled Murano crossover, and three-row Pathfinder due to tariff economics. Nissan did, however, bump up supply in advance of the discontinuation. For the Mississippi-built Frontier, this allowed for a 49% sales bump in the first-half of 2025. The Murano, which comes from Smyrna, Tennessee, posted a 36% uptick in the first, including a 58% Q1 surge.

Michigan’s VSS-S Three-Rows

VSS-S sounds like a joint Cadillac/Chevrolet high-performance sub-brand. It’s not. VSS-S is the platform name for GM’s third-generation three-row crossovers. Built in Lansing, Michigan, the latest editions of the Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, and Buick Enclave are successors to the original Lambda-platform vehicles (which also included the Saturn Outlook) and the C1XX vehicles that ran for half a dozen years from 2018 onward. GM Canada is selling SUVs of all sizes in big numbers, but the year-over-year growth of this trio – up 84% to 8,902 units – marks the most major change.

Ohio’s Acuras

Honda’s upmarket Acura brand builds four vehicles in two different Ohio locations. The MDX and RDX utility vehicles are assembled in East Liberty; the Integra and TLX sedans are built alongside the Accord in Marysville. Exclude the aging TLX from that mix – its sales are down 36% this year. The remaining three combined for 6,075 first-half sales, a 12% improvement from 2024 levels. The MDX and RDX, alone, account for 80% of the brand’s Canadian volume.

Midsize Market Share Thieves

With fewer and fewer contenders each year, the midsize sedan market is now kept afloat by the Toyota Camry. Or at least it was kept afloat by the Camry last year, when Toyota held 47% market share. With three of last year’s options gone – Subaru Legacy, Kia K5, Chevrolet Malibu – the Camry’s only remaining challengers are the Nissan Altima, Honda Accord, and Hyundai Sonata. The Altima comes from Mississippi; the Accord from Ohio. Sales of the U.S.-built Camry tumbled 54% during the first six months of 2025; the Accord and Altima combined for a 20% increase, driving their combined market share from 18 to 37%.

Big Toyotas

It wasn’t the start to the year that Toyota Canada would like. Supply constraints continue to limit the volume of in-demand vehicles, particularly Toyota hybrids. Yet while many Toyota models failed to measure up to last year’s pace, the big Grand Highlander SUV (built in Indiana) and the bigger Sequoia (built in Texas) managed to move forward. The duo’s 5,408 combined sales – 4,873 for the Grand Highlander; 535 for the Sequoia – represents a 10% increase.

Colorado Canyons

Canadian sales of 7,951 for the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon allowed the GM midsize duo to end the first-half of 2025 1,540 units ahead of their main challenger, the Toyota Tacoma. (Sales of the Tacoma, built in both Texas and Mexico, jumped 32%.) General Motors produces the Colorado and Canyon in Wentzville, Missouri, along with two of its commercial vans, the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana. Incidentally, the van tandem’s Canadian sales are up 39% this year.

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