Year in Rear View ‘24

Let's look back at data from the year to see what happened with vehicles across Canada.

Based on data collected from September 1st, 2023 to September 1st, 2024.

Vehicle theft in Canada

152,622 vehicles have been identified as actively stolen. – Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC)

The number of vehicles reported as stolen on CARFAX Canada Vehicle History Reports increased by 25%.

Of vehicles stolen, SUVs were the most commonly stolen vehicle type, which isn’t too surprising as there are more of these vehicles on the road.

Stolen vehicles by major vehicle type (%)

Our insights indicate that there are 141,260 potential VIN Clones!

Another rising fraudulent practice has been VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) Cloning. VIN Cloning is the act of stealing a VIN from a legitimate vehicle and masking this VIN onto another vehicle, typically stolen, essentially giving it a fake ID.

Why is this a problem? Well, it turns a stolen vehicle into a clone of the original, allowing the scammer to sell a vehicle under false pretenses with fake documentation.
See: How you can avoid being a victim of VIN Cloning

Accident claims in Canada

The total amount of accident claim damage that was found on CARFAX Canada Vehicle History Reports last year was $7,626,716,272.57.

The top three highest claim dollar amount dates were:

January 9, 2024 ($12,073,669)
January 16, 2024 ($11,958,314)
February 15, 2024 ($11,854,504)

The date with the most reported collisions found on our reports was February 15, 2024, with 981 unique claims.

Of the reports that had an accident claim in 2024, 77% of them had been in one reported accident.

The majority of the claims reported were found in:

Weather damage in Canada

Alberta leads the country in hail damage claims with $140 million.

In fact, they had 300% more total damage claims than the next highest province, Ontario.

The top three provinces with hail damage claims
found are:

Alberta
Ontario
Quebec

Wind is a different story. Ontario is seeing an increase of extreme weather and wind damage is one of the results from that.

With over $12 million in damages due to wind-related occurrences, Ontario is leading the country.

The top three provinces with wind related damage found were:

Ontario
Alberta
Nova Scotia

Liens in Canada

42% of lien reports found money owing.

When looking at each province, it isn’t surprising that the highest lien counts come from the provinces with large populations:

Ontario – 297,605
British Columbia – 176,329
Alberta – 161,269

A lien is an outstanding or unpaid debt on a vehicle. If a vehicle has a lien on it when its purchased, the person who bought that vehicle may be responsible for that debt.
Learn more about Liens

Odometers in Canada

The highest reported odometer reading we found this past year was 999,998.

The 2010 Lincoln MKS in question had 66 service records.

These numbers serve as a reminder of the importance of safety behind the wheel, and knowing a vehicle’s history before you purchase used. Only the CARFAX Canada Vehicle History Report can search through billions of data records to help give you peace of mind when buying a used car.
Learn more about Vehicle History Reports