‘Miserable streak’ for April car sales now over

After failing to kick off the spring with a bang, the last number of Aprils have been a disappointment when it comes to new car sales.

That’s no more according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. April 2025 produced “a healthy” 186,000 in unit sales in Canada. That’s up 10 per cent from 2024 and the highest since 2019 when 192,000 units were sold.

That brings the seasonally adjusted annual rate to 1.9 million units, though that’s down from more two million-plus SAAR seen during the first quarter.

But that doesn’t have DesRosiers managing partner Andrew King too concerned.

“Still a very solid performance given the political and economic turmoil of the last month,” he said in the analysis. “Corporate performances were decidedly uneven with a number of exceptional gains accompanied by some declines from a handful of brands.”

Light trucks continued to dominate sales, making up 88.3 per cent of the market in April, “accounting for all the growth in the market as passenger car sales continued to wither,” the report said.

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