It appears the dealership software breach that occurred in the second half of June had a clear impact on sales, along with regional implications, that affected provincial figures for the month.
According to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, the overall June sales market was flat — but in British Columbia, estimated new light vehicle sales dropped 7.9%. For the higher volume provinces, Alberta experienced a sales decline of 3.2% and Ontario was down 1.1%.
“The CDK outage appears to have impacted Canadian dealers in a noticeable way for June, and this impact was evidently far from evenly spread across the country,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner at DAC, in a statement.
On the up side, Manitoba saw an estimated sales bump of 15.7%, which DAC said was “well ahead of the overall June market in percentage terms.” And Quebec managed a 5.7% increase.
“For the first half of 2024, however, the majority of provinces noted double-digit growth — although that performance is forecast to decline significantly in the second half of the year,” said King.
For the first half of June the picture was indeed slightly different: Newfoundland experienced the strongest sales boost, up 18.1%, and six other provinces enjoyed double-digit growth. Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia fell under the national market, as their sales increases were 8.4%, 7.5%, and 7.4%, respectively. Still, Ontario added more than 29,000 units to the first half sales total, and Quebec added over 28,000.
