Australian new car sales slipped 7.4 percent in January 2019 compared to the same time last year. Toyota continues to dominate.
Australian new car sales got off to a slow start in January with sales down 7.4 percent (compared to January 2018) realising a total of 81,994 vehicles sold. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) attributes the sales drop to “lower levels of consumer confidence”.
FCAI boss, Tony Webber, said: “The current economic environment is a challenging one, with an imminent federal election, a declining real estate market and tighter lending practices.
“However, Australia’s love affair with SUVs continues. January was a solid sales period for these vehicles, with the segment claiming 43.8 percent of total market sales.
“Passenger sales were strong in the small car segment, with the Mazda 3, Toyota Corolla and Hyundai i30 leading the pack,” Mr Weber said.
All segments struggled with passenger cars continuing their decline, down by 3810 vehicle sales compared to January 2018, with SUVs also down by 1949 and light commercial vehicles losing 967 vehicle sales in January 2019 compared to the same time last year.
Toyota continued to dominate the market with 15,961 sales, followed by Mazda which lost sales down to 9490, Mitsubishi was also down but stayed in third spot with 6669 sales, Hyundai dropped too realising 6205 sales, Kia grew to 4651 from 4531 in January 2018, Ford was down to 4421 and Holden continued its slide to 4167, Honda dropped to 4042, Nissan to 3803 and Volkswagen rounded out the Top 10, dropping to 3617 sales from 3979 in January 2018.
Toyota HiLux finished the month in first, followed by Mazda3 and then Ford’s Ranger with the Toyota Corolla and Mazda Cx-5 rounding out the Top 5 best-sellers for the month.
