Australia’s top three selling cars last month were are all utes — the HiLux, the Ranger and the Triton.
Four of the remaining seven were SUVs – the Mitsubishi ASX, Mazda CX-5, Nissan X-Trail and the
Mitsubishi Outlander.
Only three of the top 10 vehicles were in fact cars – the Hyundai i30, Toyota Corolla and the Kia Cerato.
It says something about the state of the car industry in Australia where sales continue their downward spiral.
September was the 18th straight month of falling sales, down 6.9 per cent compared to September last year.
Year to date sales are down 7.9 per cent, with close to 70,000 less vehicles sold.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) is frankly at a loss to explain the industry’s poor showing.
FCAI chief Tony Webber is trying to lay the blame at the feet of the credit industry, suggesting it’s too hard for buyers to get finance.
“Of particular concern to the industry is the restrictive regulatory lending conditions currently facing consumers,” Mr Weber said.
“The question has to be asked – are these results telling us we have made it too difficult for people to finance basic purchases in today’s Australia?”
Total sales for the month of September numbered 88,181 vehicles, a decrease of 6,530 vehicles, or 6.9 per cent, on September 2018.
On a year-to-date basis, a total of 811,464 new vehicles were sold, a decrease of 69,541 vehicles, or 7.9 per cent, on the same period
in 2018.
During the month, the Sports Utility Market (41,861 units) lifted by 1.1 per cent, while the Passenger Vehicle Market (24,893 units) was down 18.3 per cent, and the Light Commercial Market (18,257) decreased by 5.4 per cent.
Of the top 10 best-selling vehicles, the top three were Light Commercial Vehicles – the Toyota Hi-Lux, Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton.
Toyota remained the top selling marque for the month with 15,166 sales for 17.2 per cent market share, followed by Mitsubishi (8990 for 10.2 per cent market share), Mazda (8168 sales for 9.3 per cent market share) Hyundai (7245 sales for 8.2 per cent market share) and Kia (5128 for 5.8 per cent market share).
