Posts by Canadian Auto Dealer

[embedded content] Canadian auto dealer senior editor Todd Phillips interviews Andrew Reutsky, the lead researcher from Harvard University that just released a new report: “Automotive Retail Advertising in Crisis.” The study found as much as 62% of dealership ad spending can’t be linked to a vehicle sale.

U.S. vehicle buyers may want greater price transparency, but many still appear to value the opportunity to negotiate, according to new research from CDK. The company surveyed more than 1,000 vehicle buyers in the second quarter about the incentives they found most attractive. Among options ranging from cash back to low interest rates, the dealer…

Used-vehicle sourcing remains a challenge for Canadian dealers, with nearly half of franchised new-vehicle dealers surveyed reporting that conditions worsened during the first half of 2026. The findings come from a survey by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC) and the Used Car Dealers Association (UCDA) of independent used-vehicle dealers and the used-vehicle operations of franchised new-vehicle…

Sung Kang is bringing Drifter back to Toronto, this time for the automotive-themed film’s world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Kang, known to automotive enthusiasts for playing Han in the Fast & Furious franchise, wrote and directed Drifter and stars in the film. Its world premiere is scheduled for Sept. 12…

Sudhakar Ramakrishna CDK Global has named Sudhakar Ramakrishna President and CEO, effective Oct. 5, as the automotive retail software provider undergoes a leadership transition following several years of investment in its technology platform. Ramakrishna will also join CDK’s board of directors, according to an Aug. 27 company announcement. He succeeds Brian MacDonald, who is retiring…

Canadian dealers could play an important role in determining whether consumers embrace emerging Chinese automotive brands, according to new research from Clarify Group. The Vehicle Buyer Opinion Study (VBOS), based on responses from 2,007 Canadians who purchased or leased a new vehicle within the past five years, explores consumer attitudes toward Chinese automotive brands as…

[embedded content] Canadian auto dealer Senior Editor Todd Phillips interviews Darren Slind, President of Clarify Group, about new national research into the attitudes of Canadian vehicle buyers. Slind discusses key findings from his company’s Vehicle Buyer Opinion Study (VBOS), including support for Chinese automotive brands, purchase consideration, the concerns that could hold buyers back, and…

Steve Davidson, Partner and Chief Operating Officer of B.C.-based Steve Marshall Group Dealers risk being caught in the automotive tariff war if they lose discipline and stray from the fundamentals, says a prominent Western Canadian dealership executive. Steve Davidson, Partner and Chief Operating Officer of B.C.-based Steve Marshall Group, which operates 13 dealerships representing Ford,…

Hybrid vehicles are emerging as an increasingly important part of Canada’s electrification mix as consumers weigh affordability, efficiency and long-term vehicle value, according to Canadian Black Book (CBB). In its latest market insights article, CBB said hybrids have become one of the stronger areas of growth as buyers seek better fuel efficiency without depending entirely…

Canadian new light-vehicle sales posted a stronger year-over-year gain in August, rising an estimated 5.4 per cent as the market extended its growth streak to three consecutive months. DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC) estimates Canadians purchased approximately 168,000 new light vehicles during the month, compared with 160,000 in August 2025. The increase was considerably stronger than…

Harris Bocknek is waging a campaign to clear his name and get back to working in the auto industry he loves. A year after the Crown withdrew all 176 criminal charges against former Rouge Valley Mitsubishi employees Harris Bocknek and Fadi Zeto, the fallout from Project Warden continues. The two men say they remain unable…

Todd Kendrick, Director of Sales and Products at RGC Automotive, which sells CarRX by Elo GPS in Canada Auto theft continues to decline across Canada, but one important measure is moving in the opposite direction: the share of stolen vehicles being recovered has slipped. Équité Association reported that 20,759 private passenger vehicles were stolen during…

iA Dealer Services is expanding its OEM business into the pure-play electric vehicle market through a new partnership with VinFast Auto Canada. The business unit of iA Financial Group said the agreement is its first OEM partnership with a manufacturer dedicated exclusively to EVs. For retailers, the partnership adds protection products to the ownership experience…

Consumer comfort with digital dealership transactions continues to grow, but credit checks remain a notable exception, according to CDK. Its latest State of F&I at the Dealership report found shoppers became more comfortable between 2025 and 2026 with submitting banking details, identification and other sensitive documents online. Yet comfort with completing a credit check digitally…

Sam Fiorani Only days after Canada and the United States appeared close to a deal that could have reduced U.S. tariffs on Canadian-built vehicles, the talks collapsed and President Donald Trump threatened to raise automotive tariffs to 50 per cent on Jan. 1, 2027.  The escalation has renewed concerns about the future of Canadian auto…

Organized crime groups are changing how they acquire vehicles in Canada, shifting from conventional theft toward increasingly sophisticated financing fraud that can allow vehicles to be exported before anyone realizes a crime has occurred. That was the warning from the Canadian Finance & Leasing Association (CFLA) and Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), which held a…

Canada’s used vehicle market entered the summer with more inventory, stable pricing and improving month-over-month transaction activity, according to CARFAX Canada’s mid-year market update released Aug. 13. Inventory increased 15.5 per cent in June from May and was 2.5 per cent higher than a year earlier, giving consumers more selection as the summer selling season…

LGM Financial Services says it has achieved carbon neutrality for its fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, while developing a strategy aimed at reducing its operational emissions over the longer term. The Vancouver-based automotive warranty, finance and insurance provider said an independent greenhouse gas inventory completed through Carbonzero measured 434.37 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent…

With a midnight tariff deadline looming, the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association says it is cautiously optimistic that Canada and the United States can reach an agreement that avoids another escalation in the trade dispute and provides relief for the auto sector.  No deal had been announced as of Friday morning, but negotiations are said to…

[embedded content] Canadian auto dealer senior editor Todd Phillips interviews Bob Rae, former Ontario Premier and former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations. Rae discusses his upcoming participation in the Motor Vehicle Retailers of Ontario’s (MVRO) Automotive Conference & Expo (ACE), taking place Oct. 15-16 in Niagara Falls, Ont. He also discusses the changing world…

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has formally moved to repeal the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, a step welcomed by Canada’s automotive industry after more than two years of pressure to change the EV sales mandate. The federal government published proposed amendments in the Canada Gazette, Part I on Aug. 15 that would repeal the mandatory…

The repair-cost gap between battery electric vehicles and their internal combustion engine counterparts has fallen to a record low in Canada and the United States. Mitchell’s Q2 2026 Plugged-In: EV Collision Insights report found average repairable severity in Canada reached $6,645 for BEVs, compared with $5,411 for ICE vehicles — a difference of $1,234. In…

New-vehicle affordability in the United States held nearly steady in July, as income growth helped offset higher vehicle prices and elevated borrowing costs. The latest Cox Automotive/Moody’s Analytics Vehicle Affordability Index found the average new vehicle required 35.4 weeks of median income to purchase, compared with 35.3 weeks in June. Income increased 4 per cent…

Canada has secured a brief reprieve from another round of U.S. tariffs, but the automotive industry remains at the centre of unresolved trade negotiations. U.S. President Donald Trump delayed threatened 50 per cent tariffs on a range of Canadian goods for three days, shortly before they were scheduled to take effect. Trump said the pause…

What began as a search for a motorhome for his own auto racing activities ultimately led Québec dealer principal Samuel Laquerre to invest in LOKI Coach — a builder of highly customized luxury motorhomes on Prevost platforms. “Instead of buying a motorhome, I ended up buying shares in the company,” said Laquerre, President of Groupe…

Canadian dealerships are seeing higher fixed operations profits, with new data suggesting productivity and efficiency are playing an important role beyond increases in labour rates. The Reynolds and Reynolds Fixed Operations Golden Metrics 2026 report examines total hours sold, hours per repair order (RO), effective labour rate (ELR) and profit per customer-pay RO across Canadian…

Crossovers gained momentum in Canada’s used-vehicle market in July, even as sales of some of the country’s highest-volume pickups and cars declined from a year earlier. New data from CarGurus shows the Nissan Rogue posted the largest year-over-year increase among July’s 10 top-selling used vehicles, with sales rising 22.2 per cent. Each model in the…

Canadian used wholesale vehicle prices continued to soften last week, with the overall market declining 0.34 per cent for the week ending Aug. 15, according to the latest market data. The decline, dealers may note, accelerated from the previous week’s 0.19 per cent decrease and exceeded the 2017-2019 average decline of 0.20 per cent for…

The global automotive cybersecurity market is projected to reach US$18.86 billion by 2033 as automakers add more connected and software-based technology to their vehicles, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets. The firm estimates the market at US$6.88 billion in 2026 and forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 15.5 per cent through 2033. For dealers, the…

The U.S. electric vehicle market regained some momentum in July, Canadian dealers may note, with sales increasing from June across both the new and used markets, according to Cox Automotive’s EV Market Monitor.  New EV sales reached an estimated 77,266 units, up 3.2 per cent from June but down 41.5 per cent from a year…

For months, organizers of the CADA Summit 2024 were urging dealers to register for the event before it sold out. True to form, the jam-packed conference opened this morning at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Ontario as one of the first events to kick off a full week of events connected to the Canadian…

Safe-Guard Canada, a provider of protection products for the automotive, RV, powersports and marine sectors, has launched a redesigned website that speaks not only to the company’s shift towards digital transformation — but also the broader shift occurring in the automotive sector.  The company’s digital transformation mirrors the changes taking place across the automotive industry.…

Vehicles may be equipped with advanced sensor technology and machine learning algorithms that can predict weather disasters in real-time by the time 2030 rolls around.  That is according to the International Drivers Association, which said in a news release that new vehicles are expected to be equipped with this technology within the next six years,…

Three auto enthusiasts are marketing the first-ever Toronto industrial car condominium to store high-end exotic and vintage automobiles. Ming Zee, Christopher Grant, and Todd Yule have retrofitted a former Gilbey’s distillery building in Etobicoke, Ont., into a 183,000 square-foot storage warehouse in Etobicoke. They bought the building, which is zoned in an industrial area, in…

A new survey report from global cybersecurity and digital privacy company Kaspersky reveals that 72 per cent of drivers in the United States are uncomfortable with automotive manufacturers sharing their data with third parties — an issue that auto retailers may find is on the mind of more than some of their potential customers, as…

A virtual cockpit platform described as the first-of-its-kind by BlackBerry Limited was recently introduced as part of the Stellantis Virtual Engineering Workbench (VEW) by the OEM. It is of interest because the new platform allows for the delivery of infotainment tech to customers 100 times faster than previous processes. How BlackBerry is involved is also…

Hyundai received the highest ranking among mass market manufacturer websites from J.D. Power’s 2024 U.S. Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study thanks in part to its intuitive experience. The study measures customer satisfaction of OEM websites during the new-vehicle shopping process by reviewing four key measures: information/content, visual appeal, navigation, and speed. In its news release, Hyundai…