2026 Honda Civic Photo by Honda

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The momentum has stalled. Canadians are buying fewer new vehicles this year than last.

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2025 was the best year for Canadian auto sales since pre-pandemic 2019. In fact, 2025 was one of the best years ever for new vehicle sales in Canada – only 2017, 2018, and 2019 were stronger.

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Unfortunately, the headwinds that were expected to catch up to the market in 2025 – the tariff-related headwinds that didn’t have the deleterious impact forecasted – appear to now be a dampening force on the automobile industry’s mojo.

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Through the first six months of 2026, seven of Canada’s 10 best-selling auto brands are selling fewer vehicles this year than last; four of those seven are down by double-digits on percentage terms. Even ascendant midsize automakers that previously appeared capable of weathering all kinds of different storms – we’re looking at you, Subaru and Mazda – are fading fast in 2026. Subaru’s down 12% in 2026’s first-half; Mazda’s down 14%.

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Collectively, however, across the entire spectrum of the market, the slow-down in momentum doesn’t translate to a significant loss, at least not yet. Automotive News reports a 1% year-over-year slide; Desrosiers Automotive Consultants says it’s closer to 3%, a loss worth roughly 26,000 fewer units.

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Where there are losers, of course, there are also winners. Which auto brands are faring well? Which pickup trucks, cars, and SUVs are generating the most demand? Through the first-half of 2026, these are Canada’s five best-selling cars, trucks, SUVs, and auto brands.

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Two years ago, in the first-half of 2024, Nissan Canada sold 9,637 Altimas, Frontiers, Muranos, Pathfinders and Versas; equal to nearly 20% of the Nissan brand’s volume. Those same models – for reasons related both to tariffs and discontinuation – brought only 1,084 customers to Nissan showrooms between January and June of 2026, just 2% of the brand’s sales. Nissan, for all intents and purposes, is a brand of Rogues and Kicks; Sentras to a small degree. This is by no means an ideal scenario for what was a supposedly full-line OEM not many years ago: Rogues and Kicks alone now produce 81% of Nissan sales in Canada.

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2026 Honda Prelude Photo by Elle Alder

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With the CR-V unable to harness the opportunity afforded to Honda by Toyota’s limited RAV4 production, the Civic losing ground to the Toyota Corolla, and Honda’s other products producing fewer than 20,000 sales, Honda’s year-over-year decline paces well below the market average. The bright spot? Honda’s Passport, sales of which jumped 78% to 3,161 units in 2026’s first-half.

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While unable to keep up the pace of growth produced by its offshoot premium brand Genesis (sales of which jumped 10% in the first-half), Hyundai did make modest progress. Rescued by the brand’s best-ever June in which the brand’s top-selling Tucson hit 4,387 units, second-quarter sales rose by a mere 110 units. Tucson isn’t the only current hit in Hyundai showrooms: Palisade volume is up 45% this year, Sonata sales are up 39%, and the entry-level Venue’s up 6%.

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2027 Chevrolet Bolt at the 2026 Montreal Auto Show Photo by Nadine Filion

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Chevrolet is the best-selling brand at Canada’s best-selling automotive corporation, generating just over half of General Motors’ Canadian volume. Chevrolet’s 3% downturn is largely a pickup truck problem: combined sales of the Silverado and Colorado slipped 13%, a loss of nearly 5,000 units. The renewed Bolt provided a big boost compared with early 2025, contributing 3,072 units to Chevrolet’s electric lineup.

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Absent non-reporting Ford, which persists with its Canadian plan to issue sales reports only on an annual basis, Toyota is well clear of all competitors in its quest for the top spot among auto brands in Canada. Toyota is also distinct in its growth trajectory; only sixth-ranked Volkswagen (up 20% with its best-ever Q2 and first-half) operated in the same ballpark. Despite major declines from its all-new, production-limited, best-selling RAV4 (down 33% from 2025 levels), Toyota managed meaningful first-half growth courtesy of double-digit percentage gains from the 4Runner, bZ, Camry, Prius, Crown Signia, Highlander, Sienna, and Tacoma.

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2026 Toyota Tundra Hybrid Capstone Photo by Nadine Filion

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Though a small challenger in the world of Canada’s hugely popular full-size pickups, Toyota’s Tundra is now a decidedly common vehicle in Canada. The Tundra outsells the Kia K4 (Canada’s fifth-best-selling car) as well as vehicles such as the Honda HR-V, Mazda3, Subaru Outback, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and Hyundai Santa Fe. Then again, for every Tundra sold, Ford sells roughly 10 F-Series pickups.

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Facing a sharp challenge from Toyota’s soaring Tacoma, GM Canada’s midsize pickup succumbed to the pressure in 2026’s first-half. Sales slipped by more than 1,000 units even as Toyota grew Tacoma volume by nearly 2,500 units. Midsize pickups are increasingly playing a meaningful role in the Canadian market, though it’s worth noting that GM’s full-size tandem outsells this midsize duo by more than 8-to-1.

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Ask yourself how Toyota managed a 7% Canadian sales uptick when its best seller, the RAV4, lost one-third of its volume. Then look at the Toyota Tacoma, among numerous other Toyotas. This isn’t just a 39% surge for the Tacoma; it’s a 39% year-over-year improvement compared with 2025, the Tacoma’s best year ever.

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2027 Ram 1500 TRX SRT Photo by Jil McIntosh

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Good news? If ever there was a 16% year-over-year improvement that doesn’t tell the whole story, this is it. Stellantis sold 25,367 full-size Ram pickups in the first-half of 2026. This is a truck lineup that found 24,000 buyers per quarter as recently as 2019. Yet for Chrysler–Dodge–Jeep–Ram dealers that have been worn down by disappearing post-pandemic demand, this current state of historically weak Ram volume at least represents a 16% turn in the right direction.

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With Ford Canada failing to report yet again – we won’t know F-Series totals for 2026 until early January 2027 – GM claims top honours in Canada’s pickup world despite a 12% slowdown. GM Canada delivered 29,483 Sierras and 27,740 Silverados, including 2,109 distinct Sierra and Silverado EVs. GM’s full-size pickups and their full-size SUV spawn are the core drivers of GM’s North American profits and volume – 45% of the company’s Canadian sales stem from these trucks.

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The final first-generation Kicks Plays are trickling out the door – only 147 were delivered in Q2 – while sales of the second-generation Kicks continue to soar. In the first-half of 2026, 15,446 copies of the newer Kicks were sold, a 51% year-over-year improvement. Subaru’s Crosstrek ranks sixth overall with 17,117 units. Hyundai’s subcompact Kicks rival, the Kona, ranks ninth overall with 14,090 sales.

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2026 Nissan Rogue Photo by Nissan

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With the virtual disappearance of much of the lineup, these are trying times for Nissan dealers in Canada. Rewind to 2019’s year-end results: Nissan reached four-digits with 13 different models. In 2026, Nissan may reach four-digit tallies with six different models. The Rogue, as ever, is the stabilizing force: sales grew by 1,165 units in the first-half of 2026 and the Rogue is on pace for its best year since 2018.

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Only 2,422 units shy of the silver-medal position at the mid-year point, the Tucson is clearly steering Hyundai’s ship. With the Ioniq 5, Santa Fe, and Santa Cruz collectively down by more than 7,000 units, the Tucson’s 6,635-unit uptick is a welcome turn of events. One-third of Hyundai’s Canadian volume is now Tucson-derived.

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Toyota’s plant in Cambridge, Ontario won silver in the survey for North American factories Photo by Toyota

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This is hardly the dream setup Toyota was envisioning when launching the sixth-generation RAV4, Canada’s reigning 10-time best-selling SUV. The supply chain is disrupted to say the least, with the classic Strait of Hormuz pretext sitting near the top of Toyota’s list of excuses for Toyota’s severe production slowdown.

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Will it hold? Not since 2015 has any SUV other than the Toyota RAV4 been Canada’s No.1 utility vehicle. Unfortunately for Honda, the current scenario doesn’t inspire confidence. The Canadian-built CR-V’s position atop the leaderboard at the moment isn’t down to any newfound Honda dominance – CR-V sales are declining.

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Fun fact: Kia sold 7,923 K4s in the first-half of 2025. K4 volume then tumbled 15% in 2026’s first-half, a decline of 1,167 units. Yet Kia compact sedan volume actually increased to 8,040 between January and June of this year. Thank the all-electric EV4, which basically offset every last one of the K4’s lost sales.

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2026 Volkswagen Jetta Comfortline Photo by Brian Harper

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Volkswagen just produced the most first-half Canadian sales in the history of the company. For the Jetta specifically – a car that’s rumoured to be on Volkswagen’s global kill list – that was most definitely not the case. In fact, the Jetta couldn’t even keep up with last year’s first-half pace. Yet in a car market that was down 4% in 2026’s first six months, the Jetta’s actually punching above its weight class.

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While Hyundai’s Tucson is capitalizing on Toyota’s RAV4 challenges, Hyundai is unable to paint the same picture in the passenger car arena. Honda Civic sales are falling, but the vehicle closing the gap isn’t the Elantra. In fact, even in Hyundai Canada’s best-ever June, Elantra volume slipped 7%.

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At the halfway point of 2025, the Corolla was clearly not up to the task, lagging behind the dominant Honda Civic to the tune of a 3,975-unit gap. This is a different scenario, one that requires the accelerating Corolla to outsell the Civic by “just” 401 units per month to pull even by the end of the year. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? No, not in an era as unpredictable as this.

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The Urban Grey Pearl Metallic paint looked great in every light. Photo by Clayton Seams

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On its quest to end 2026 as Canada’s best-selling car for the 27th time in the last 29 years, the Honda Civic built a 2,407-unit lead through the first six months of the year. That’s dangerously close for the Canadian-built Civic, which fell to second spot in 2022 and 2023. The Civic is part of a passenger car market that’s a mere shadow of its former self. Only 13% of the new vehicles sold in Canada are cars; 14% of those are Civics.

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