Three of Australia’s top five selling vehicles were light commercials in February 2013 according to official VFACTS data released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).
February 2013 sales of 90,218 passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles were up 5.2% or 4,495 vehicles on February 2012, with year to date sales 8.1% higher year on year. All states and territories showed growth, ranging from 3.0% (Queensland) to 14.0% (Tasmania) compared with February 2012.
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The Mazda 3 was again the top selling vehicle with 3,378 sales, followed by the Toyota HiLux (3,319), the Toyota Corolla (3,158), the Nissan Navara (2,645) and the Mitsubishi Triton (2,335).
Government purchases were down 30.2% compared with February last year. Sales of passenger vehicles continued the decline seen in previous months, with volume down 5.7% compared to February 2012. Total sales of SUVs and light commercials were slightly higher than sales of passenger vehicles in February, reflecting the range of choice in the market.
Sales growth of SUVs has continued to climb with a 14.2% increase on sales in February 2012. However, sales of light commercials have outstripped even this growth with 2013 sales 26.9% higher than the same month in 2012. Both private and business buyers have delivered this growth, at the expense of the medium and large passenger vehicle categories which declined 26.6% and 28.1% respectively compared to February 2012.
Each of the local manufacturers – GM Holden, Ford and Toyota – showed declining sales.
Toyota retained the top position in the February monthly market with 16,017 vehicle sales, ahead of Mazda with 8,728 and Nissan third with 8,212.
