Luxury sports cars took the lead in DesRosiers Automotive Consultants’ third-quarter segment sales update, gaining 45.5% year-to-date.
The Canadian new light vehicle market has enjoyed 11 consecutive months of year-over-year sales increases. The result is an estimated year-to-date sales increase of 10.1%, when compared to the same period in 2022. And at the segment level, performance is mostly positive.
“A number of passenger car segments showed strong gains, as vehicle availability continued to impact purchase decisions,” said Andrew King, Managing Partner at DAC, in a statement. “However, overall light trucks continued to lead the way despite the ever-important large pickup segment continuing to lag the market.”
The compact SUV and large van segments experienced an increase of 24.9%, but the large SUV segment saw a decline of 14.9%. Still, it also remained ahead of the overall market, thanks to a 16.4% boost year-to-date. The largest decline actually came from the subcompact passenger car segment, which was down 37.2% due to disappearing models and less enthusiastic consumer sentiment.
“Luxury high passenger cars and small pickups also struggled, showing sales declines at 13.5% and 11.0%, respectively,” said DAC in its update. So far this year, passenger car sales are down 3.7%, while light truck sales are up 12.9%.
