DesRosiers Automotive Consultants (DAC) says June light-vehicle sales were relatively weak amid widespread software outages after cybersecurity attacks on CDK Global last month.
CDK Global, an Illinois-based company that provides software for several auto dealers across Canada and the U.S., was hit by back-to-back cyberattacks on June 19. They were down for nearly two weeks.
DAC estimates sales for the month came in at 169,000, "dead even" with June 2023.
Andrew King, managing partner of DesRosiers, says sales figures for the month are still far below industry highs, with June sales typically exceeding 200,000 units in pre-pandemic years.
On a positive note, June’s seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 1.72 million was a slight step up from May, “which is a definitive positive given the DMS issue,” DesRosiers said.
DAC says the June sales numbers were helped by an increased array of sub-vented interest rates and incentives to push sales higher as the software outage disrupted work for dealerships.
From a year-to-date perspective, the market came in at an estimated 924,000. That’s a 10.4-per-cent increase over the six-month total that started 2023.
The consultancy says July could see a rebound from the software outage as delayed sales recover.
“With interest rates starting a downward cycle and the inventory issues behind us, we will be watching closely to see how much momentum the market can hold on to as pent-up demand starts to wane,” DAC said in a statement.
