Australians bought 86,819 new vehicles last month – 2.1 per cent (1,765 vehicles) better than September 2010. However total sales so far this year (752,128) are 3.7 per cent down on last year – probably mostly due to supply restrictions following the Japanese earthquake/Tsunami.
Toyota retains market leadership with total sales this year of 131,371vehicles and in September the Toyota Corolla was Australia’s most popular car with sales of 3,766 units while Toyota HiLux was number three, chalking up sales of 3,191 for the month. Holden Commodore was our second most-purchased vehicle in September (3,712) and Holden Cruze was number four (3,117).
Overall in September, Toyota was the top-seller with 17,378 vehicles, ahead of Holden (11,009) and Ford (8,161). The battle for honours amongst the full-line importers went to Hyundai (7,508) last month, ahead of Mazda (6,037) – year-to-date Mazda holds a slender lead over Hyundai of just 826 vehicles.
While Toyota, Holden and Ford sales are down this year compared to 2010, Mazda, Hyundai and Nissan sales are up (Nissan has displaced Mitsubishi to be our sixth most-popular brand).
While passenger car sales are down and SUV sales are running only marginally ahead of last year, in September light commercial vehicles (LCVs) were up by 21 per cent and sales of heavy trucks climbed by 5.8 per cent. So the industry’s Canberra-based governing body - the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) - is sticking to its forecast that total new vehicle sales in 2011 will, for the fourth time, exceed one million vehicles.
“Reduced sales in the second quarter of 2011 have set a challenging target for the final three months of the year, but industry resolve is high,” explained FCAI chief Ian Chalmers. “Sales stimulus by means of competition in the marketplace saw the third quarter end strongly and we are now looking toward continued growth through to the end of the year.”
