Data from Australia's Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries showed new vehicle sales in October 2019 fell 9.1% in the 19th consecutive month of decreasing volume.
"Year to date sales of new motor vehicles in 2019 are almost 78,000 units (8%) lower than the same period in 2018," said FCAI chief executive Tony Weber.
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"While the drought and other domestic conditions are impacting the market, our key concern is the effect over regulation of the financial sector is having on new vehicle sales.
"The FCAI and our members have been concerned about the risk averse approach to lending in Australia for some time and see improved access to finance as a key to driving economic growth in 2020," Weber said.
"Of particular interest is the fact that sales are down across all buyer types, with private sales down 5.2% compared to October 2018, business sales are down 8.2% and government sales are down 7.3%."
Total sales reached 82,456 vehicles.
SUV sales fell 3% to 38,648 units, passenger vehicle volume of 23,553 was off 15.3%, and light commercial vehicle deliveries slipped 11% to 17,164.
The Toyota Hilux (3,516 units) was the top selling vehicle last month, followed by the Ford Ranger (3,160), Hyundai i30 (2,216) Toyota RAV4 (2,132) and Toyota Corolla (2,117).
Toyota remained the top selling marque for the month with 16,988 sales (20.6% market share), followed by Hyundai (7,455; 9%), Mazda (6,370; ), Kia (5,062; 6.1%) and Ford (4,891; 5.9%).
