The third quarter of the year saw slightly more than 500,000 new light vehicles sold in Canada — down 3.9% year-over-year, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC).
Passenger car sales decreased 21.4% during this period, while light truck sales were up by 1.8% and helped offset the majority of those losses, said DAC.
“Lock-down or no lock-down, the consumer stampede from passenger cars to light trucks continued apace with light trucks accounting for a remarkable 79.7% of reported light vehicle sales for the quarter,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner at DAC.
On vehicle segments, the subcompact SUV category recorded a sales increase of 19.2% in Q3 this year, a boost that led the market while the luxury sport and small pickup segments recorded sales increases of 17.9% and 17.1%, respectively.
The intermediate SUV and large pickup (volume) segments were up 8.1% and 4.3% respectively, YOY.
“At the other end of the spectrum, half of the passenger car segments noted sales decreases in excess of 20 per cent including the luxury, compact, and intermediate segments,” said DAC.
One noteworthy example of this is the 28.7% decline for subcompact cars.
