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By Nick Nielsen

27,000 units sold to date

2025 on pace to be one of Saskatchewan’s biggest years for auto sales

Aug 28, 2025 | 5:00 PM

Across the province, it has been a record year for vehicle sales according to the Saskatchewan Automobile Dealer’s Association. Despite tariffs having a significant effect on sourcing auto parts and other challenges facing the Saskatchewan and Canadian economy, Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Automobile Dealers Association (SADA) Larry Heggs was surprised and excited to see the numbers from the province this year.

“It’s been a strong year across the entire province. We thought at the beginning of the year with the tariff situation and those types of things, we might be seeing a reduction in sales, and that wasn’t the case. We thought maybe we’re seeing a sort of a pre-buy, ‘I needed a vehicle, I might as well buy it because tariffs are going to increase the price. I’ll just get it done’, but that hasn’t been the case either, because it’s gone way past that.”

According to stats from Heggs, there has been about 27,000 vehicles sold by dealerships in up until the end of June in Saskatchewan in 2025, which is up a whopping 4,000 units compared to the same time frame in 2024. When asked why, Heggs attributed it to a strong economy in Saskatchewan despite outside challenges, and a recovery from the pandemic that now has lots filled with vehicles.

“So I think what it speaks to is the strength in Saskatchewan’s economy and just sort of our optimism. Whether it be around agriculture or industry or whatever it looks like, there’s just some strength there. I have to go back clear to back to 2017 to see numbers anywhere near this strong and in fact, other than that year, they’re stronger than they are pre-2015, so these are great numbers.”

Heggs added, “I think it speaks to just an overall optimism and of what’s available, and the availability of vehicles that are sitting on lots, customers have a tendency to want to buy them.”

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Tariffs have come down on certain parts coming into Canada, so that has made sourcing parts difficult for repairs that may need to be done. Heggs said that the effect on those parts is less than people may think because a lot more parts and vehicles fall under the Canada U.S Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) than the public realizes.

“We don’t really face as big of a challenge I think as what might be perceived because, without getting extremely political, but with the drum that Trump pounds about the tariffs on the automotive industry, at the end of the day, the CUSMA vehicles are still exempt. So a lot of the vehicles within that trade agreement and parts on his side and on the Canadian side are exempt. So that was that was a big relief for our industry, if there’s a reduction and availability to parts, it’s probably a manufacturer issue more so than it is a retailer or a tariff issue, or pricing issue or anything like that.”

Heggs gave credit to the Canadian government, the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), the various provincial automobile dealers associations such as the SADA, and the dealers themselves in the province for their shared work to keep tariffs from affecting the Canadian auto industry as much as possible.

It isn’t just new vehicles that are flying off the lots either, the effects are being felt in the used vehicle market as well. With the number of new vehicles being sold in the province, it’s only natural that the people buying new will have used vehicles to sell.

“The margin between the two, used to new sales, remains the same. There is the odd store in the province that maybe puts up a higher used sale number than we’ll say maybe it’s counterpart, but in general I would say the gap we sell as many used vehicles as we used to, and the numbers have increased as well, but I mean that that makes sense, right? Because when you when you sell one new one, you sell two used ones.”

The automobile dealers in Saskatchewan help generate about $5.4 billion in Saskatchewan according to Heggs, and employ over 73,000. With the potential for a big agriculture year in Saskatchewan, the end of 2025 could see an even bigger spike in auto sales.