SAN FRANCISCO –

To be sure, new-car sales in Canada have been on a tear in recent years.

Citing data from WardsAuto, Jumpstart Automotive Media points out that Canadian new-car sales have increased for eight straight years and set records for five straight years — including this first: eclipsing the 2 million unit mark last year.

But based on findings in Jumpstart’s latest Insights Book, the Canadian market might be pretty rosy for used cars, too.

The share of new-car shoppers across Jumpstart who were considering used cars climbed from 25 percent in 2016 to 30 percent in 2017.

In the luxury segment,,  17 percent of new-car shoppers last year considered used, up from 13 percent in 2016, according to Jumpstart.

For non-luxury, consideration climbed from 27 percent to 32 percent.

"When it comes to the path to purchase, there is no one, linear path. But what we do know is that cross-shopping (i.e., consumers looking at competitive brands, models, or segments to narrow down their decision) plays a very key part in today’s auto shopping process," Jumpstart said in the study.

"We’ve found this to be especially true in recent months as the used-car market continues to heat up. Thanks, in part, to rising new-car prices, we’ve been seeing a surge of people cross-shopping." 

And what’s more, the company’s Auto Shopper Survey from this year found that over half of new-car shoppers in Canada are open to buying used or certified pre-owned cars.

Used and CPO shoppers may be ripe for conquest sales, too, as their likelihood to consider other brands is 11 percent higher than for new-car shoppers, Jumpstart said.

And in a different form of conquesting, the likelihood that a Canadian shopper with a new car on their list considers changing that to a used or CPO car goes up 17 percent as they move closer toward making a purchase choice.

Elsewhere in the report, Jumpstart broke down used-vehicle crossing shopping trends, which can be found on page 47 (slide 24) here.