TRURO, N.S. – With two weeks still to go, new car sales this year are on pace to “easily eclipse” the two million threshold for the first time across Canada, national figures show.
And Nova Scotia is no exception.
“This year will be the fifth consecutive record year for new vehicle sales in Canada, as consumers continue to respond to the best product value equation we have ever seen in the new vehicle market,” Michael Hatch, chief economist for the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) said, in a news release.
“New vehicle sales have been uniformly strong across the entire country this year,” Hatch said, adding that the numbers both reflect strong job growth and consumer confidence.
Rob Stuart, owner of the Stuart Kia dealership in Truro, said this is also the fifth straight year that he has experienced sales increases.
“Realistically, Truro’s always been pretty consistent,” said Stuart, who opened his Kia dealership seven years ago last March, after previously owning the Stuart Pontiac/Buick dealership until GM stopped manufacturing Pontiac vehicles.
“Sales on new cars are so aggressive between all the manufacturers you can probably buy a new car cheaper a lot of times, than you can buy a late model or a used one,” he said.
The CADA news release said that November sales across the country are up “a very strong” five per cent, while Nova Scotia dealers have reported an average increase in new vehicle sales of 12.2 per cent so far this year.
Stuart said he couldn’t confirm that his sales had increased by that much in 2017 “but I know I am up from last year.”
Hatch described the two-million nation-wide sales figure as “a major milestone for the Canadian auto industry and said dealers are looking forward to continued growth in 2018.
CADA represents 3,300 auto dealerships across the country who employ more than 150,000 people.
Nova Scotia has approximately 135 new car dealerships, with each one employing an average of 25 people and individual sales of about 375 new vehicles per year, according to information provided by the Nova Scotia Automobile Dealers Association.
