2017 Canadian Car Buyers Going Premium

autoTRADER.ca Releases Annual Top 10 List of Most Searched Vehicles

TORONTO, Dec. 18, 2017 /CNW/ - With the economy on the up and up, more Canadian car shoppers were tempted to upgrade their garages with something flashier in 2017. autoTRADER.ca's annual search data revealed more searches for luxury and high-performance vehicles over the practical people movers of years' past.

Featuring hundreds of thousands of new and used vehicles for sale, Canada's largest and most comprehensive automotive marketplace released their annual list of findings today, driven by data collected and analyzed from the site.

While the top four vehicle searches in Canada for 2017 remained unchanged from the year prior, movement in the lower ranks of the Top 10 saw searches for the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and BMW M models increase. Searches for the Porsche 911 also continued to climb the charts despite being a lower volume production model.

In a true-to-form Canadian show of consistency and predictability, the Ford F-150 unsurprisingly took the top spot for the third consecutive year, continuing its reign as both the most searched and highest selling vehicle in Canada.

"This year's search data demonstrates an appetite for more premium vehicles than previous years," says Michael Bettencourt, managing editor, autoTRADER.ca, "With a stronger economy comes increased consumer confidence, so it makes sense that Canadian car shoppers may be considering more upscale brands."

In fact, a Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey¹ shows that the unemployment rate declined to 5.9 per cent in November of 2017, the lowest rate since February of 2008 and well below market expectations as the economy recently added some 80,000 jobs.

And according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants November 2017 AutoWatch² vehicle sales report, Canadians aren't just kicking the tires of premium performance vehicles – they're putting their money where their mouths are. Luxury marques may be produced in lower volumes than that of their more mainstream counterparts, but the top four companies with the most significant percentage increases in Canadian sales over the last calendar year were luxury brands.

autoTRADER.ca collects and analyzes search data from each province and territory and while vehicle searches across the country were remarkably similar, the order did vary across regions. The Ford F-150 took the fourth spot in Quebec whereas it was consistently top three in every other province. The Ford Mustang was the first choice in New Brunswick and Newfoundland, contributing to its national number two placement. While heavy-duty trucks like the Ford F-250 and F-350 made the list in Newfoundland, Nunavut, BC, Alberta and the Yukon, they did not make the national Top 10.

2017 Top 10 Most Searched Vehicle Models in Canada:

1) Ford F-150
2) Ford Mustang
3) BMW 3-Series
4) Honda Civic
5) Jeep Wrangler
6) Porsche 911
7) Mercedes-Benz C-Class
8) Chevrolet Corvette
9) Honda Accord
10) BMW M

Sources:
1) Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, November 2017
2) Desrosiers Automotive Consultants AutoWatch, November 2017

About TRADER Corporation
TRADER Corporation is a trusted Canadian leader in online media, managing consumer automotive marketplaces and providing dealers with digital business solutions to market and manage their inventory. The company's primary online destinations include autoTRADER.ca™ and autoHEBDO.net™, driving over 14.5 million visits a month and more than 4 million mobile app downloads. Both autoTRADER.ca and autoHEBDO.net offer an extensive inventory of new and used vehicles in Canada across both desktop and mobile platforms. Partnering with global leaders such as Dealer Drive, Dealer.com and vAuto, TRADER delivers best-in-class digital web, advertising and inventory management solutions to help accelerate business performance of dealers across Canada.

For more information, visit: autoTRADER.ca

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SOURCE autoTRADER.ca

For more information, imagery or interview opportunities, please contact: Dustin Woods, CO-OP, 905.510.4496, [email protected]; James Loftus, CO-OP, 416.898.4579, [email protected]