Canadians bought an estimated 126,000 vehicles in December 2025, down 7.3 per cent from a year earlier, DesRosiers Automotive Consultants said Jan. 6, 2026. But full-year sales of 1.9 million vehicles rose two per cent and made 2025 the industry’s best year since 2019, despite tariff turmoil.
A “mediocre” December
DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. did not mince words about the final month of the year, calling December’s sales numbers “mediocre.” The firm estimates 126,000 vehicles were sold, down 7.3 per cent from December 2024 — despite December 2025 having one extra selling day.
The comparison, though, was a punishing one. December 2024 was the second-strongest December on record, inflated by a rush of Quebec buyers purchasing electric vehicles ahead of changes to the province’s EV incentives. Measured on a seasonally adjusted basis, December 2025’s sales rate of 1.92 million units sat in the middle of the year’s range — unremarkable rather than alarming.
Best year since before the pandemic
The full-year picture is stronger. DesRosiers says about 1.9 million vehicles were sold in Canada in 2025, up two per cent from 2024, despite the headwinds from the tariff disruptions that defined the year — U.S. tariffs, Canadian counter-tariffs and the supply-chain reshuffling both set off.
It was the best year for the industry since 2019, when 1.93 million vehicles were sold, and the sixth-best year on record. General Motors finished 2025 as the market leader with just under 300,000 vehicles sold, fewer than 6,000 units ahead of Ford, which had led earlier in the year.
The “gap to growth”
DesRosiers’ enthusiasm, however, is deliberately muted. Sales remain 7.1 per cent below the peak set in 2017 — and the firm argues the comparison is worse than it looks, because Canada’s population has grown by 4.9 million people since then without a corresponding rise in vehicle sales.
“We will never complain at a market that grows from the previous year; however, this year our celebrations are decidedly muted,” said Andrew King, the firm’s managing partner. “The market remains 7.1 per cent below the previous peak of 2017 — and it should be noted that since that time the Canadian population has grown by 4.9 million people — making what we term at DAC the real ‘gap to growth’ much worse.”
In other words, the industry sold roughly its usual number of vehicles to a much larger country.
Chaos, absorbed
The firm’s year-end review describes 2025 as a year in which policy shocks — tariffs above all — directly shaped what dealers could stock and what buyers could choose, steering sourcing decisions and zero-emission vehicle demand month to month. As one dealer publication summed up DAC’s view, the industry spent much of the year bracing for the next shoe to drop out of Washington. That the market still grew, and posted its best total in six years, suggests demand proved more durable than the year’s headlines implied — even if few in the industry describe the result as a celebration.
DesRosiers warns, though, that 2026 could bring fresh pressure on pricing and margins as automakers continue reworking their supply lines in response to the new trade reality.
