March TradeTracker: Consistency Is Key
Dealertrack Technologies’ monthly TradeTracker Used Vehicle Market Report has been released for the month of March, and the one thing you need to know from it is that customer desires appear to have remained relatively consistent for the last year.
For the month of March, the overall most-appraised vehicle in Canada remains the stalwart Ford F-150, a trend repeated for the last three months and the last year. In fact, the rest of the top-five most-appraised vehicles also repeat those trends, and are as follows (in order of most appraisals): Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic (sedan), Mazda Mazda3, and Dodge Grand Caravan.
When you break down what types of dealers are appraising what types of vehicles, the consistency remains for the last month as well as the previous three-month and year-long trends. Domestic vehicle most appraised by domestic dealers? F-150. Import vehicle at import dealers? Corolla. Domestic vehicle at import dealers? Ford Escape. And import vehicle at domestic dealers? Mazda3.
It’s not until you analyze what trade-in owners are looking at that you find a slight fluctuation in what is otherwise business as usual. Domestic owners looking to trade in for another domestic vehicle were the most interested in the F-150. That is the case for March as well as a three-month trend and year-long trend.
Those same trends are also apparent for the top import vehicle looked at by import owners (Corolla) and the top import vehicle looked at by domestic owners (Toyota RAV 4). The only change comes with the top domestic vehicle looked at by import owners, which, in March, was the F-150 – a three-month and year-long trend currently held by the Escape but slowly being taken over by its larger Ford brother.
TradeTracker’s brand of the month, Toyota, also presented a model in consistency. The top-three off-make vehicles appraised by its dealers remain the same for the last month all the way up to the last year: the Civic (sedan), Mazda3 and F-150. Trade-in customers looking to pick up a Toyota were most interested in the Corolla in March, followed by the RAV 4 and the Yaris.