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Though 2020 was brutal on all automakers, it was especially challenging for top-tier premium brands. Canada’s top three luxury marques — a German triumvirate from Ingolstadt, Stuttgart, and Munich — combined for a 26 per cent decline valued at 29,000 lost sales in a market that was down only 20 per cent by year’s end.
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Driving By Numbers: Canada's 10 best-selling luxury auto brands in 2021's first-half Back to video
Yet the same premium brands that failed to effectively sail through the headwinds last year are now being propelled forward at a rapid rate by market-wide tailwinds. Auto sales in Canada this year are up 33 per cent, indicative of meaningful recovery if not a wholesale return to the normal highs of the last decade. But premium auto brands reported a 47 per cent uptick during the first-half of 2021, a collective increase of more than 33,000 vehicles. Market share is up by more than a point to 12 per cent, meaning Canadians buy luxury brand vehicles — of all stripes — almost as often as Canadians buy Toyotas.