2025 ends with lower Canadian new car prices than 2024: AutoTrader – emptytank.ca
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AutoTrader’s price index for the fourth quarter of 2025 shows new vehicle prices were on average 2.7 per cent cheaper in December than a year earlier, while used vehicle prices were up two per cent.
AutoTrader data shows new vehicle prices did the exact opposite of what industry expects had been predicting at the beginning of the Canada-United States tariff war on vehicles.
Average new vehicle prices went down in 2025, and came in 2.7 per cent lower in December 2025 than during the same month in 2024, according to AutoTrader’s price index for the fourth quarter of 2025.
Average used vehicle prices, on the other end, finished higher in December, coming in two per cent higher than during the same month a year earlier. Even so, average used vehicle prices peaked in June 2025 and have been steadily coming down since, according to the price index.
According to AutoTrader, during December 2025, average vehicle prices were as follows:
Average prices by vehicle segment:
AutoTrader points out vehicle sales were higher in the first half of 2025 as people tried to get ahead of tariff-driven price increases and sales slowed down slightly in the second half of the year. An increase in sales activity in 2025 could result in a softer market in the first half of 2026, but the year overall is expected to see growth, so long as the economy doesn’t hit a recession and CUSMA continues to be observed, AutoTrader said. CUSMA (the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement) has helped reduce the import tariff impact on vehicles and parts that comply with the agreement.
The report said Canada’s new vehicle market sits on 77 days of inventory, which is considered healthy, but this is not consistent across all automakers as some are constantly on short supply of vehicles and others have an abundance.
AutoTrader said without changes to U.S. trade policies, there will be upward pressure on vehicle prices.
The full AutoTrader Q4 2025 price index report is available at autotrader.ca.
AutoTrader is not the only organization that provides insights into average vehicle prices in Canada, and its findings sometimes contradict those of Statistics Canada.
However, AutoTrader is the largest automotive marketplace in Canada, therefore it has access to what’s likely the largest data set in the country.
While that’s no guarantee of perfect accuracy, AutoTrader’s price index is a good barometer of average Canadian vehicle prices.
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