The autoTRADER.ca Retail Price Index offers a monthly view of the Canadian automotive market by analyzing retail pricing data associated with over 400,000 new and used vehicle listings on the country’s leading automotive marketplace. This report tracks median pricing by vehicle type, region and manufacturer origin; allowing Canadians to observe automotive pricing shifts and trends over time.
May Highlights
Automotive retail prices across Canada were up year-over-year for the month of May by 3.9% for new cars and 4.3% for used cars, outpacing the Bank of Canada’s expected CPI inflation of 2%.
While remaining one of the most expensive provinces for used cars, Alberta has seen a decline in used car prices, with a 4.6% drop, year-over-year, largely due to a decrease in the price of sedans. Used car prices in Quebec, however, were up 5.4% in the same period.
Conversely, new car prices in Alberta have increased 6.5% year-over-year, largely driven by the truck segment. Moving east across the country, new car prices in Quebec have declined with a 2.1% drop year-over-year, which was driven by a 4.1% drop in the price of SUVs. We’ll continue to actively monitor prices in Alberta and Quebec to see if these trends hold over the coming months.
Our data also suggests that compared to those manufactured in North America or Asia, prices of new vehicles from Europe increased the most, by 7.3% year-over-year. Prices of new cars from Asia increased by only 1%, while those manufactured in North America experienced a 5.3% increase, year-over-year.
Alternatively, for used cars, prices of Asian-made automobiles increased nearly three times that of those in other markets, with an increase of 6.4% year-over-year, while prices of European and North American-made vehicles increased by 2.7% and 2%, respectively.
