I think 1958 was a minor recession year. By 1959 Studebaker was producing the smaller Lark, and by 1960 there was the Falcon, Corvair, Valiant. I do remember as a kid that as a British Commonwealth there were many small British cars around in Canada. Chrysler shrank the dimensions of a number of there cars, and GM relented from the big fins and such. The Japanese invasion happened in waves, starting on the west coast in California. Datsun & Toyota didn't really take off around these parts until around 69/70. The mid-70s saw the Japanese gaining in favor, then again around 1981 when import quotas were necessary to prevent domestic collapse. Volkswagen was a phenomenon that went on like crazy until the early 70s when the Japanese cars took over, plus the German exchange rate made German cars expensive (enter the Mercedes / BMW mystique of high-end models).

Great Article - Growing up in the 1960s I remember seeing a lot Vauxhalls, English Fords ,and even Renaults around.  The 1960s seemed to be an area of growth for the two car families.  A lot of families picked up used Envoys or Cortinas or Valiants or Falcons for the wife to use while the husband took the good ( usually big) car to work. I think a lot more women started to drive in the 1960s - ( I know my mother learned to drive in her late 30's)

The author says this in the article "The study notes Vancouver motorists were trading in their North American cars for smaller and more economical foreign-built imports at an unprecedented level."

This certainly was the behavior of my father - he traded his 1955 Canadian Pontiac in on a 1960 Vauxhall Cresta( talk about a car that you never see any more) in the earlier 60s.  He kept it for 4 years. the only negative thing I remember him saying about it was that the heater was not great.  He traded it in in 1967 for a 63 Chev Biscayne - the clutch was going and it was rusted out.

Abo

I remember seeing cars around like the one below, but by the early 1970's they were pretty scarce around these parts. The pictures below I took in N.E. Oshawa back in 2005 while getting an aluminum wheel refinished. It was a total surprise to see it.

I believe the car is a Vauxhall Super from 1958+. The Vauxhall was sold at Canadian Pontiac-Buick dealer, while the same car with a different grille was called the Epic & was sold at Canadian Chevrolet-Oldsmobile dealers.