The Australian motor industry has posted record sales for May 2017.

Volume for the month rose 6.4% year on year to 102,901 units with all market segments increasing.

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Year to date sales were down 0.9% to 465,381, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries' (FCAI) official statistical service VFACTS.

Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) was again the largest selling segment, with a 38.5% share in May, followed by passenger cars (37.7%) and light commercials (20.6%).

The strongest SUV growth was in the medium sized segment, which grew 23.3%, and, in volume terms, was the second largest behind small passenger cars.

Four wheel drive light commercials was Australia's third largest volume market segment and large SUVs the fourth.

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Notable in the sales by buyer type was that business purchase of SUVs nationally rose by 14.9%, and light commercial purchases by government rose by 31.7%. Sales to rental fleets also returned "strongly" during May.

Diesel sales continue to dominate the light commercial market but dipped during May in the SUV private (down 5.5% over May 2016) and non-private (down 1.4%) categories.

FCAI chief executive  Tony Weber, said the May market rebound was not unexpected, given the approach of the end of the 2016-17 financial year.

"Light commercials and SUVs were again strong performing segments, both up by 9.4%, but it was also interesting to see small passenger cars as our country's most popular vehicle category," he added.

Following on the April pattern, the top selling vehicle in May was the Toyota Hilux with 4,154 sales, followed very closely by the Ford Ranger (4,069). Third was the Toyota Corolla (3,160), followed by the Hyundai i30 (2,683) and Mazda 3 (2,594).

Toyota continued to lead the market with a 19.3% share during May, followed by Mazda (9.6%), Hyundai (8.1%), Ford (7.4%) and Holden (6.7%).

Toyota was market leader in April, again followed by Mazda and Hyundai.

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