Canadian automotive sales revealed worrying declines in June. And although DesRosiers Automotive Consultants does caution that reading too much into one month’s data can be dangerous, this one came up as noteworthy.
“Retail sales have remained stable in the first half overall and have maintained high dollar value figures, but June itself has shown notable weakness,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner at DAC, in a statement.
June retail sales showed declines across the breadth of the auto sector. Sales for new vehicle dealers sank 8.6%, while used vehicle dealers were down 6.1% — both compared to the same month in 2023. Automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores were also down, by 7.6% in June.
“To be sure, monthly data can fluctuate and June was also the month when the CDK software outage hit the industry — but still the scale of the decline across the sector is concerning,” said DAC in its update.
The decline is more than the first half of 2024, when retail sales were more stable and some increases were experienced. During this period used vehicle dealers saw a minor 0.9% increase, while new vehicle dealers observed a 0.5% boost in sales. On the flip side, gasoline stations experienced a minor decline of 0.4% in retail sales. And auto parts, accessories, and tire stores were down 1.1%.
