New vehicle sales rebound, kind of

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November showed some signs of life as far as new vehicle sales are concerned.

However, DesRosiers Automotive Consultants cautioned not to be too overjoyed at the numbers. “It is hard to be too positive about the big picture performance,” its announcement said.

Drawing parallels to Canada’s performance at the World Cup — the country’s first goal ever in the tournament was recorded but the end result left more to be desired — DesRosiers reported November unit sales up 4.1 per cent compared to last year, though the 2021 numbers didn’t set a high bar to jump over.

November’s performance helped lift the seasonally adjusted annual rate to 1.51 million. An improvement from summer numbers but below what was originally anticipated at the start of the year.

Andrew King, Desrosiers managing partner, is pessimistic that number will be reached in the end. He noted that sales year to date stands at just 1.38 million units. Barring a big December, it’s more likely than not that 2022 will finish the year below 1.5 million units sold.

“If this is indeed the case, it will be [the] first year the market has fallen below this threshold since 2009,” he said.