Australians bought 91,236 new passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles in October 2014, 1.5% less than in October 2013. Year to date sales were 924,189 units with the full-year tally expected to top 1.1m for the third consecutive year.
SUV sales continued to boom with last month’s sales up 9.7% year on year and YTD sales up 5.3%. Passenger car sales fell 8.1% and light commercial sales decreased 1.9%.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said: “Sales to private buyers fell 3.9% compared to October 2013; however, private sales remain up by 1.1% year to date.
“Business confidence appears to have a significant effect on business purchases of new motor vehicles this year with business sales continuing to fall – sales are down 2% for the month and 7.1% year-to-date.”
The Toyota Corolla was the top selling vehicle in October 2014 with 3,819 vehicles sold followed by the Hilux (3,228), Mazda 3 (2,928), Hyundai i30 (2,475) and Ford Ranger (2,405). Year-to-date, only 914 sales separate the top two vehicles – the Corolla (36,925) and the 3 (36,011).
Weber said it was no surprise three small passenger cars are represented in the top five for the month and year-to-date.
“Small passenger cars hold the largest market share for both October and year-to-date sales. They accounted for 22.6% of sales last month and 22.7% of sales between January and October 2014. Small passenger cars were followed by medium SUVs, large SUVs and 4×4 light commercial vehicles, all holding around 11 to 12% of the total market so far this year.”
Toyota maintained the overall lead in market share for October 2014 (19.1%) followed by Hyundai (9.2%), Holden (8.3%), Mazda (7.5%) and Ford (6.9%).
