Australian new vehicle sales fell by 7.8 per cent (compared to July 2017) in July with passenger cars continuing to slide, down 20.2 per cent, according to VFACTS figures released today.

AUSTRALIAN NEW VEHICLE sales fell in July with passenger cars tumbling by 20.2 per cent compared to the same month last year. Even sales of SUVs were down in July, albeit by just 1.0 per cent while sales of light commercial vehicles were up by just 0.1 per cent.

In July 2018, new vehicle sales totalled 85,551 while the same month in 2017 realised 92,754 sales. Continuing to show that dual-cab utes are the must-have family car, sales of Toyota Hilux (3747) and Ford Ranger (2950) led sales in July. Bucking the trend, sales of light cars was up by 31.8 per cent, small SUVs grew by 3.4 per cent and 4×4 dual cabs 6.4 per cent with upper large SUVs rising by 4.1 per cent in July.

The biggest falls in July were in the large car segment (-56.3 per cent), followed by medium passenger cars (-31.3 per cent), sports cars (-38.2 per cent) and upper-large passenger cars (-46.1 per cent). The July fall in sales has seen 2018 sales slip behind 2017 year-to-date (by 0.2 per cent).

Toyota was the market leader in July with a dominant 19.8 per cent share, followed by Mazda (10.4 per cent), Hyundai (8.3 per cent), Mitsubishi (6.9 per cent) and Ford (6.4 per cent).

The Toyota Hilux continued its market leadership and even improved its sales on July last year. The Hilux led July with 3747 sales, followed by the Ford Ranger (2950), Toyota Corolla (2594), Mazda3 (2443) and Mazda CX-5 (2233).