Sales of new vehicles in Australia fell 5.5% year on year in August 2014 with 88,157 new passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles sold.
Releasing the official August 2014 VFACTS data, FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said sales fell predominantly in the passenger car segment. Volume was down a notable 11.2% to 5,402 while sales of SUVs and light commercial vehicles were comparable to August 2013 (up 0.1 and 0.5%, respectively).
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“SUVs and light commercial vehicles were a popular choice for private buyers in August, with private purchases in these segments rising 5.6 and 8.9%, respectively; compared to August 2013. Private purchases of passenger cars, however, fell 15.7%,” Weber said.
“Government purchases of SUVs increased 29.6% and passenger car sales to government increased 1.3%. While government purchases of light commercial vehicles fell 7.4% in August, year to date sales remain 1.5% higher than the same YTD period in 2013.
“Business purchases declined in all categories, with business buyers purchasing 6% less passenger cars, 9.6% less SUVs and 3.9% less light commercial vehicles.”
YTD, sales were down 2.5%. YTD sales in the passenger car segment was down 5.4% and light commercial vehicle sales off 4.7%. But, YTD, SUV sales were up 3.7%. In particular, YTD sales of small SUVs were up 15.7%.
Overall, the Toyota Corolla maintained the title of top selling vehicle for the month with 3,247 sales in August 2014. The Corolla was followed by the Mazda 3 (3,124), Toyota Hilux (2,918), Hyundai i30 (2,651) and GM’s Holden Commodore (2,344).
Toyota maintained the overall lead in market share for June 2014 (17.7%) followed by Holden and Hyundai (both 9.8%), Mazda (8.5%) and Ford (7.8%).
