Price Index
OPENLANE Canada Price Index for April
OPENLANE Canada is the largest provider of wholesale used vehicle auctions in Canada. The Index is calculated from millions of pieces of sales data from OPENLANE Canada’s live open bidding auctions.
April 2024
The OPENLANE Canada Used Vehicle Price Index has been updated through April 2024. The index increased by 1.8% after being adjusted for seasonality.
April sales were up 14% year over year which extends the trend of positive sales growth month over month. That said, April 2024 sales still lagged behind Aprils of the past that had sales highs of over 180K units.
Pent up demand is winding down, but the market still has a favorable production mix and available inventory. We do see the market being tempered by growing days supply, high interest rates and OEMs trying to offset with increased incentives.
We are still in a period of short supply of used vehicles which should sustain used vehicle pricing into 2026/2027.
Price movements by segment were even in April. Midsize SUV showed the most decrease at -6.6% ($1,610), Mid Compact at -3.6% ($596), and Compact SUV at -1.0% ($201). Some increases were Minivans at 2.2% ($477), and Midsize at 0.4% ($77), and Fullsize Pickup at 0.1% ($47).
How OPENLANE calculates the UVPI
OPENLANE Canada is the largest provider of wholesale used vehicle auctions in Canada. The Index is calculated from millions of pieces of sales data from OPENLANE Canada’s live open bidding auctions. The data is adjusted for a large number of variables, including type of vehicle, mileage, age and season. A two-step statistical filtering process excludes extreme values in the raw data. The resulting Index provides a picture of the Canadian used vehicle market and depicts the trend of used vehicle prices in Canada.
OPENLANE Canada notes that the index provides insight into the economy as a whole and consumer spending patterns. It also points to the direction of the used vehicle market and, by implication, of the new vehicle market, as there is a complex relationship between the prices of used and new vehicles which is reflected in the adage ‘Today’s new vehicle is tomorrow’s used vehicle’. Typically, used vehicle prices respond to many macro variables, such as the health of the overall economy, financing available to new versus used vehicles; the volume of vehicles in the pipeline, the age of vehicles on the road, the U.S. dollar exchange rate, incentives and the number of vehicles coming off lease.