For the 26th consecutive year, the Honda Civic was Canada's top-selling passenger car. Just over 31,000 units sold — and it outpaced the Toyota Corolla by a wide margin, despite a slight sales dip from 2024. The Hyundai Elantra, VW Jetta, and Mazda3 round out the top five. A compact sedan has now held the crown for over a quarter century. That's not an accident. It's a message about what Canadian buyers actually want: practical, reliable, affordable, and proven.
For dealers, the Civic's dominance has a direct implication: used Civics move. If you see clean Civics at auction being undervalued because buyers aren't fighting over them that week, the retail demand is still there. The same logic applies to Corollas, Elantras, and Mazda3s. These are the segments where Canadian consumers have established deeply reliable patterns.
The Weekly Wholesale Picture
The week ending January 24th was relatively calm. The overall market dipped 0.28% — softer than recent weeks. Cars fell just 0.14%, which was one of the smallest weekly drops in months. Trucks declined 0.39%.
Within the car segment, mid-size and compact cars led declines — consistent with recent weeks. The interesting counter-move: full-size cars bucked the trend with a 0.44% gain. Premium sporty cars and luxury cars held up well too. On the truck side, full-size crossovers and compact vans saw the steepest drops, while full-size pickups and full-size luxury crossovers managed small gains.
Full-size trucks continue to hold their value better than most of the market. They're working vehicles for a lot of Canadians — not discretionary purchases — and that underlying utility anchors their wholesale value even when the broader market softens.
Auction: 48% Conversion With a Wide Range
Auction conversion averaged around 48% this week. The spread from best to worst lanes ran from 33% to 84% — a gap that tells you something important: this market rewards specificity. The right vehicle at the right price moves fast. Average inventory sits. Bad inventory doesn't move at all.
The retail market had about 204,000 vehicles listed at an average of $36,730. That's a wide selection for buyers — which means dealers with less-distinctive inventory are competing against 204,000 alternatives for every customer.
Chinese EVs Are Now an Official Part of This Market
PM Carney's deal with China brought in 49,000 Chinese-built EVs at a reduced 6.1% tariff for 2026. Several brands are positioning to take advantage. Lotus — owned by Chinese conglomerate Geely — is eyeing the Canadian market. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is pushing back hard, calling for a boycott of Chinese EVs on the grounds that they undermine Ontario's auto sector. It's a genuinely complicated debate.
The affordability argument is real: Chinese EVs are landing at price points that Western brands genuinely can't match. The industrial policy argument is equally real: Ontario's manufacturing base is deeply tied to traditional auto production. For dealers, the near-term question is simpler — which brands actually deliver product, and is there a service and parts network to support them? Entry pricing alone doesn't make an EV practical for a Canadian buyer who needs service in Sudbury or Lethbridge in February.
Toyota's RAV4 Goes Hybrid-Only — Why That Matters
Toyota has started producing its next-generation RAV4 exclusively in hybrid and plug-in hybrid form. The Cambridge, Ontario plant currently builds 75% of North American RAV4 volume — making this a significant local story. Hybrid RAV4s have been consistently one of the best-selling vehicles in Canada for the last several years. The move to hybrid-only is a signal that Toyota is betting the RAV4's continued dominance on electrification-lite, not full EV.
For the used market: hybrid RAV4s already carry a premium over their gas equivalents. As the only new format going forward, clean used examples of the hybrid RAV4 — especially older gas variants that will eventually become the "retro" option — are worth watching from an acquisition standpoint.
Chery Automobile Is Scoping Canada
Chinese automaker Chery Automobile is reportedly laying groundwork to become the first Chinese brand to sell cars directly in Canada — hiring Canadian auto industry professionals the way VinFast did before its Canadian launch. Whether Chery executes or not, the fact that multiple Chinese manufacturers are actively building Canadian market infrastructure is a real competitive development that's happening now, not in five years.
The Dealer Summary
The wholesale data this week was mild — which is relative good news after several weeks of sharper declines. The structural forces shaping 2026 are more interesting: the arrival of Chinese EVs, the hybrid-ification of bestselling models like the RAV4, the continued dominance of practical vehicles like the Civic and full-size trucks. The market is shifting in slow and fast ways simultaneously. The dealers who stay current on both will position their inventory better than those who rely on what worked last year.