Motor vehicle sales across Australia got off to a solid start in January, with the month s sales nudging ahead of the same period last year and showing a rise in activity among private purchasers, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) said.

Total sales for January, including passenger cars, SUVs, light and heavy commercial vehicles rose 0.6% year on year to 84,910.

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Within the segments, light commercials fell 3.9%, passenger car sales declined 0.8% and SUVs continued their consistent growth with a gain of 3.2%.

FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said the steady industry sales result was very encouraging for the year ahead.

"Coming off the back of another record sales year, we're pleased to see a modest gain, with private buyers active in the market and taking advantage of the offers out there from the brands.

"It's a very good indicator for the year to come. We remain confident that given unchanged economic conditions, the market will remain buoyant."

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The SUV segment grew again in January and accounted for 40.2% of the total market, compared with passenger cars at 41.1%. Within the SUV segment, medium-sized models were the most popular recording 13,956 sales for the month, a gain of 8.6% on January 2016. Sales in this medium SUV segment marginally exceeded that of all light commercials sold nationally (13,942) in January.

Within the private SUV segment, sales of diesels declined 6.9% while petrol engine models rose 14%.

The nation's top five best-selling vehicles in January were the Mazda 3 (3,473 sales), Toyota Corolla (2,943), Toyota Hilux (2,702), Ford Ranger (2,622) and Hyundai i30 (2,018).

Toyota led the market in January with a 14.8% share, followed by Mazda (11.9%), GM's Holden (8.5%), Hyundai (7.9%) and Ford (7%).