Updated new vehicle sales in Canada for October show smaller drop

RICHMOND HILL, Ont. – DesRosiers Automotive figures for new vehicle sales in Canada in October – including previously unavailable sales numbers by Ford – saw a 5.2 per cent decline compared with the same month last year.

An earlier version of the report on Tuesday, which excluded Ford sales, had shown a 5.7 per cent decline compared to the prior-year period.

The Richmond Hill, Ont.-based automotive consulting firm’s amended sales figures, released Thursday, showed 154,542 new light vehicles were purchased last month compared with 163,104 in October 2015.

DesRosiers said the 5.2 per cent drop is the biggest year-over-year decline observed in 2016, followed by the 2.6 per cent year-over-year drop in July sales.

Sales of new light vehicles, however, were still up 2.3 per cent so far this year.

Ford of Canada’s October sales had been unavailable due to a fire at Ford’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Mich.