A recent report from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants highlights that Canadian aftermarket retail parts and accessories sales hit an all-time record in the first quarter of 2022.

The DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC) report, which also covers retail sales from gas stations, new and used car dealers, says that automotive parts and accessories retail sales have boomed, rising more than 7%, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

Statistics Canada, which DAC uses as a source, pegs retail sales from automotive parts, accessories and tires stores at more than $3.26B CAD for the first quarter of 2022.

“The aftermarket has shown remarkable resilience through the last couple of years and continues to act as a strong foundation of stability for all industry players,” commented Andrew King Managing Partner at DAC.

“While much of the media attention so far in 2022 has been on the spiking price of gas and booming dollar sales levels at gas stations, it should be also noted that the auto industry as a whole saw record dollar level figures of retail sales in Q1 this year. Indeed, automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores saw retail sales climb 7.6% in the first quarter from 2021 levels, rising well above pre-pandemic highs,” says a release on the report.

“New car dealers,” it continues, “also saw a 6.0% increase in retail sales and have also climbed up above pre-pandemic levels. The same remained true for used car dealers, although retail sales for them increased just 1.9% for the first quarter of 2022.”

However, as buoyant as these performance figures are, they pale in comparison to the rapid rise experienced by gas stations, which saw a 31% rise in sales over 2021.

However, cautions DAC, despite the lower growth percentage from the other tracked segments, the growth for those is more significant in terms of profitability and outlook for the automotive industry in Canada.

“While new and used car dealers have struggled with product shortages as a result of semiconductor supply issues, net dollars per unit have soared resulting in record retail sales,” says King.

“We do expect growth to falter for vehicle dealers in Q2 as vehicle supply shortages become more dire, but the outlook for the aftermarket is positive as kilometers driven continues to climb.”

DAC publishes market outlooks for the new and used markets, for kilometers driven, and for the Canadian aftermarket.

For more information visit Desrosiers.ca or contact Daniel Azarov at daniel@desrosiers.ca.