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A new poll from AutoTrader, Canada’s largest automotive marketplace, reveals a significant increase in tariff-related vehicle price expectations over the past three months.

Compared with June 2026, more shoppers anticipate vehicle price increases as a result of trade renegotiations, with 85% of new vehicle shoppers and 73% of used vehicle shoppers (both up 16 percentage points) now expecting prices to rise.

“Based on what we saw last year in April 2025, when the first tariffs were implemented, this is exactly what happened,” said Baris Akyurek, VP of Insights and Intelligence at AutoTrader.

“The anticipation of price increase for people, consumers they didn’t want to pay, and more when they wanted to buy their cars, and demand went up, and therefore prices started to tick up. So I think because of what happened last year, expectation is the same for this year and now the demand has slowed down a little bit, getting closer to the Jan. 1 deadline (for tariffs).”

“But the closer we get to that date we expect to see a little bit of a pick up. People are not going to want to pay more of the cars that they are intending to buy,” Akyurek added.

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Man Canadians put buying a new car on hold

Nearly three-quarters of respondents expect the U.S. to proceed with raising tariffs on Jan. 1, 2027.

And nearly half (48%) of Canadians who planned to purchase a vehicle earlier this year ultimately decided to wait, highlighting how uncertainty and affordability concerns are influencing purchase timing.

“The market is a little bit mixed right now,” Akyurek said. “So when you look at the new car market is pretty resilient in the last four months we are seeing an uptick in new car sales year over year basis, so there’s not a lot of slowdown on the new car side of things.”

“But when you look at the used side, the used car market has slowed down in the last two months and we’re also seeing this slowdown into October,” Akyurek said. “Overall the market is resilient but there’s a difference at segment levels.”

Of those intending to purchase a vehicle within the next six months, 81% say they are likely to buy by the end of 2026.

“I think it’s both (used and new cars),” said Akyurek. “We think about these tariffs and threats about what Trump wants to do. We all know he changes his mind quite often and I think consumers are aware of this and are like, ‘Okay, I’m just going to wait it out. I’m not going to rush this. But if there’s no change, if these tariffs go through, I will buy it. Because obviously if I need to buy a vehicle I don’t want to wait for the January deadline because I will be paying more for the same car so it does make sense.'”

jstevenson@postmedia.com