Canadians want new vehicles, just not the kind of vehicles that originate in one of these five segments
From bell bottoms and acid washed straight legs, to baggy overalls and boot cuts, to skinny jeans and mom jeans, one thing is certain: consumer tastes change.
Of course, the denim market isn’t dead, and neither is the auto industry. But just as jean buyers shifted away from flared and embellished denim, consumers also steer away from certain types of vehicles, collectively pivoting their focus to an entirely different category. This isn’t unique to denim and automobiles, of course.
Your kids may not want Beyblades for Christmas in 2024, but they still want toys. People move on from the Macarena and the Griddy, sure, but they still dance. You’re no longer stocking up on George Foreman grills, but you’re still buying wedding gifts. You get the idea.
Likewise, Canadians aren’t very interested in seven-seaters with sliding doors, low-riding four-doors with dedicated trunks, or really anything with a traditionally affordable price tag. But Canadians are still buying cars. Tens of thousands of cars every month. In fact, through the first three-quarters of 2024, Canadians bought or leased an average of over 150,000 new vehicles per month.
Indeed, Canadians want new vehicles, just not the kind of vehicles that originate in one of the five segments listed below. These are the five most rapidly collapsing vehicle categories in Canada in 2024, not just on a year-over-year basis but with a look back five years, a decade, and two decades ago.
Subcompact Cars
Long gone are the Hyundai Accent, Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit, and Ford Fiesta. More recent departures include the Kia Rio, Mitsubishi Mirage, and Chevrolet Spark. Subcompact car sales in Canada plunged by more than 90% over the last decade and by roughly 80% over the last five years alone. Nearly 6% of 2014’s new vehicle sales were subcompacts; that’s now 0.4%.
The Family Sedan
The segment is on track to produce fewer than 24,000 sales in 2024, a drop of 56% in just five years. The midsize sector’s share of the Canadian market in 2004 stood at 11%. It’s now down to just 1%. In 2004, 14 different midsize sedans put up four-digit Canadian sales figures. In 2025, there’ll be only be four contenders in the entire category.
Minivans
Affordable Sports/Performance Cars
Large Luxury Cars
The BMW X7 SUV outsells the BMW 7 Series sedan by more than 6-to-1. At Mercedes-Benz Canada, the G-Wagen and GLS outsell the S-Class sedan by more than 5-to-1. At Toyota’s Lexus division, the LS sedan produced only 22 sales in 2024’s first three-quarters – the LX SUV produced 24 times that volume. Audi’s Q8 and Q8 e-tron outsell the A8 sedan by better than 52-to-1.
The full-size luxury sedan was never going to be a high-volume market in Canada. Even 20 years ago, long before luxury SUVs asserted their dominance, the large luxury sedan segment generated only 0.16% of the Canadian market. But there was a big difference, with mid-pack players such as the Lexus LS and Audi A8 producing 309 and 290 sales, respectively. Combined, that duo now produces only six sales per month. Overall, the segment’s market share has fallen by half since 2014.
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