Canadian Dealers Want To Import Cars Americans Can’t Buy

[nfitz]

The average car on the road is around 11-12 years old, which means half of vehicles are older than that. So if you have a 10-year old car, congrats, you have a younger than normal car! And that age is just getting older - there are around 27 million cars in Canada but Canadians only buy around 1.9 million new cars a year (a replacement time of 14 years).

The reality is that the new car market is mostly restricted to the top 20% of incomes or so these days (obviously not universally). It's a nature of cars lasting longer, used cars hold value longer and offer practical choices longer.

It's a big reason the budget car market has collapsed, because those who have a $20,000 car budget are better off buying a used car which sold for $40,000 5 years ago than buying a much less practical, and just as reliable, new car. Like, would you like a BYD Seagull or a Civic Hatchback which is far more practical and spacious with a lot more features?

Good points. I'm very reluctant to replace my $20K, 2014 Civic with 100,000 km on it, when the biggest technical problem I've ever had is 2 of the defrost lines on my back window failed, and there's a crack in the windscreen.

Up to 3 or 4 years ago, I kept being surprised by the emails from my dealer wanting to buy it back, because of the high resale value (perhaps it was just a trick to get me into the showroom).

 

[urbanclient]

high resale value (perhaps it was just a trick to get me into the showroom).

Both. Anyone new car shopping in 2022 will tell you wait times were ridiculous and used cars were the same price as new because you could get one without a wait time.

It's like selling your Toronto house because it appreciated over the last two decades, but you're choices after are high rent or buying other expensive houses (your house wasn't the only one that appreciated).

 

[Admiral Beez]

One problem the manufacturers of those very light and cheap 'city' cars made for other markets will be meeting North American collision safety standards. Meeting the standards would inevitably add weight and cost.

As we approach retirement we’re starting to look at a single EV to replace our now decade old SUVs. We want something awd, with a tall seating position, but also it must be compact in exterior dimensions. The need for small dims cancels out much of the EV marker. The Geely China produced Volvo XC30 is looking appealing.

https://www.volvocars.com/en-ca/cars/ex30-electric/

 

[hw621]

So these are not isolated events. Almost all of their plants overseas have the same thing. It is just their business model:

EV giant BYD accused of forced labour violations at European factory​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/byd-hungary-china-labour-watch-9.7154249