The latest data on used car sales for Canada in the first half of 2026 reveals a degree of welcome stability, though challenges remain for both franchise and independent used car dealers.

According the DesRosiers Automotive Consultants survey of Used Car Dealer Association members, used car averages for both new car dealers and independents slid in year over year comparison.

For new vehicle dealers, average sales for the first half of 2025 were noted at 163 units, dropping slightly to 158 for the first half of 2026.

Independent used vehicle dealers noted 63 units on average for the first half of 2025 and 54 units on average for the first half of 2026.

While the detailed numbers may or may not be of significant importance to each individual shop, the knock-on effect of the recent wide swings are many. Keeping people in their existing vehicles is a positive outcome, the rising prices on even very poor condition used vehicles–$5-$10,000 vehicles, often bought privately but still price at what would historically be considered a premium or that vehicle–are often rife with existing issues forcing shops to make decisions about parts supply, and what to fix first, and have uncomfortable conversations with the car’s owner about their “new car” that they would rather not have.

So a moderated market is good news for shops for a lot of reasons.

For this year as a whole, new vehicle dealers expected their used sales to reach 303 units against independents at 108 units on average.

Few areas of the larger automotive have seen the whipsaw impacts of the pandemic in the way the used car market has. From big upwards shifts in market price as new vehicle supply challenges dominted the in-pandemic marketplace, to a less than predictable roller-coaster on the back end of those supply challenges.

Even now, some years hence, there a measure of inconsistency in the supply-side pressures, even as the overall landscape has moderated.

Recent data from CARFAX Canada according to its Mid-Year Used Vehicle Market Insights report said used-vehicle sales remained below 2025 levels, but the pace has improved from the weaker start to 2026. In June, 277,361 used vehicles changed hands, a 1.3 per cent increase from May. Transactions were still down 2.9 per cent compared with June 2025, although that decline was smaller than those recorded earlier in the year.

It also reported a big rebound in inventories: Used-vehicle inventory jumped 15.5 per cent month-over-month in June and was 2.5 per cent higher than a year earlier. CARFAX Canada says the increase represents the highest inventory level recorded so far this year.

Likely that big jump in June has not been enough to counteract early-years lower inventories, colouring the data from UCDA members in the DAC data, which also revealed an almost even split in both groups.

Both franchised new vehicle dealers and independent used vehicle dealers noted worsening sourcing at 48.6% of new dealers and 52.1% of independents. On the fipside, more than half of new vehicle dealers reported no change or improvded supply, whil slightly less than half of independents (47.9%) said conditions were the same or better (32.3% and 15.6% respectively).

“The used vehicle market has proved resilient amidst the multitude of challenges it has faced” commented Andrew King, Managing Partner at DAC.

“How this market develops in the coming years still depends heavily on Canada’s economic trajectory, the US initiated trade war, population shifts, and a myriad of other evolving factors.”