Supply issues lead to used-car price increases

A shortage of supply has driven up the cost of used vehicles in Canada.

According to the survey, conducted by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, in cooperation with the Used Car Dealers Association, the majority of dealers (68.6%) saw price increases of varying degrees in July.

The pandemic also caused sourcing difficulties for dealers in July, with the great majority of dealers indicating challenges in sourcing some or all vehicles. Just 9.5% of respondents noted no difficulty whatsoever in sourcing vehicles.

The survey, conducted most recently between Aug. 4 and 11, received responses from close to 600 used car dealers.

Just 5% of used car dealers in Canada remained closed due to Covid-19 in July. That’s down appreciably from April, when only 13.9% of dealers were open for regular hours.

According to DesRosiers, “Dealers have been experiencing a steadily improving sales situation in recent months. In July, as consumers released pent-up demand, nearly forty percent of surveyed dealers indicated sales volume growth compared to the previous year. However, 21.1% indicated a sales decrease of 1-25%, 23.4% indicated a decrease of 26-50%, and 15.9% indicated a decrease of 51-100%. Comparatively in April, used car dealers indicated that their sales volumes had dropped with the majority (54.8%) indicating a decrease of 76-100%.”

For the year overall, close to 80% of dealers expect the market to be down from 2019, with the largest segment of dealers, 32.4%, expecting total sales to decrease 1-25% in 2020.

www.ucda.org

www.desrosiers.ca