The good news is that Canadian car prices are down from a year ago.

The less-good news is that those prices are only slightly down, according to AutoTrader’s price index for the third-quarter of 2024, a period ending in September.

Here’s a quick glance of the stats.

Average new vehicle prices in Canada in September 2024 came in $66,560, which is 1.9 per cent less than a year go, but 0.1 per cent more than a month earlier.

Average used vehicle prices came in at $35,754, which is 8.7 per cent less than a year ago and 0.7 per cent less than the month before.

AutoTrader notes that there has been an uptick in used vehicle demand since the beginning of August and sales numbers are up 3.3 per cent compared to the same period last year. Additionally, used vehicle inventory has decreased slightly on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

On the new vehicle side, prices are stable, but inventory is increasing, which has resulted in new incentives for buyers, including falling loan rates, AutoTrader said. The average interest rates for new cars came in at 4.8 per cent in September, down from the recent peak of 6.2 per cent.

AutoTrader noted that based on its own transaction data and external data, it observed strong year-over-year new car sales growth in the third quarter; however, there has been a decline in the last few months and sales are not yet at 2019 levels. AutoTrader anticipates a return to 2019 sales levels by 2026.

Top used vehicle sellers

For the month of September, AutoTrader reports these were the top selling used vehicles on its platform:

1. Ford F-150
2. Honda CR-V
3. Toyota RAV4
4. Ram 1500
5. Ford Escape
6. Honda Civic Sedan
7. Toyota Corolla
8. Nissan Rogue
9. Hyundai Elantra
10. GMC Sierra 1500

The full price index report is available on the AutoTrader website.