New sales up in February but…

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The good news is light vehicle sales in Canada were up 5.1 per cent in February compared to one year ago, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.

The bad news is that it wasn’t a high bar to jump over. Last month was still the second-worst February for sales in the last 10 years with 100,000 new vehicles sold.

That said, DesRosiers preferred to look on the bright side of things.

“The market has now achieved year-over-year gains in four straight months as the breadth of improved vehicle availability gradually widens, and consumer spending remains resilient,” said Andrew King, the firm’s managing partner.

The SAAR for the month came in at 1.70 million units, which is pretty much in line with the level seen in January, DesRosiers noted. If it goes as suggested, the firm is pegging sales to spike in March to almost 180,000 units before coming down to about 160,000 in May and June. From there, it expects sales to tail off each month and end the year at about 120,000 units in December.