The Canadian new vehicle market remained hot this past month as sales from reporting OEMs, estimated by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, totalled 155,259 units for September 2023 — up 19.0% from the same month in 2022.
“Improved vehicle availability is making a real impact on the market, allowing pent-up demand to be released and easily outweighing any down-drafts from high interest rates and a weak economic environment,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner of DAC, in a statement.
The increase was more than the 18.3% gain observed in August. It also marked the best year-over-year increase seen so far this year. At the same time, September 2023 is being compared to a weak month in 2022, which was the worst September since 2009, according to DAC. September 2023 enjoyed a SAAR of 1.77 million, the highest that DAC has observed since January.
On a year-to-date basis, they also said the market is up 10.1% now, overall, while highlighting some noteworthy gains — including from General Motors, which leads the market with a 14.6% boost, selling 197,349 units for the year so far. Mitsubishi was up 67.9% from 2022, and larger volume brands in the mainstream market enjoyed some nice gains too: Kia was up 31.4%, Subaru 22.3%, and Honda 20.7%.
Furthermore, DAC said the luxury market “saw a number of impressive performances with, among larger volume brands, significant increases for Lexus (up 30.0%), Infiniti (up 23.5%), and Audi (up 20.3%).”
