SUVs experienced the largest growth in October new car sales, despite the market falling by 1.5% when compared with October 2013.
SALES OF SUVS continued to drive new car sales in October with sales up by 9.7% compared with October 2013. Both passenger car and light commercial sales decreased 8.1% and 1.9%, respective, compared to October 2013.
Despite growth in the SUV segment, Australian new car sales in October dropped 1.5% year-on-year with 91,236 passenger cars purchased. Year-to-date, Australians have bought 924,189 new vehicles, with the full-year market expected to top 1.1 million for the third year in a row.
By volume small cars enjoyed the largest number of sales, with three of the top five new car sales for October 2014 were small cars: Toyota Corolla, Mazda3 and Hyundai i30. “Small passenger cars hold the largest market share for both October and year‑to‑date sales. They accounted for 22.6% of sales last month and 22.7% of sales between January and October 2014,” FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said.
“Small passenger cars are followed by medium SUVs, large SUVs and 4×4 light commercial vehicles all, holding around 11 to 12% of the total market so far this year.”
The Toyota Corolla was the top selling vehicle in October 2014 with 3819 vehicles sold. The Corolla was followed by the Toyota Hilux (3228), Mazda3 (2928), Hyundai i30 (2475) and Ford Ranger (2405). Year‑to‑date, only 914 sales separate the top two year-to-date selling vehicles—the Toyota Corolla (36,925) and the Mazda3 (36,011).
Toyota maintained the overall lead in market share for October 2014 (19.1%), followed by Hyundai (9.2%), Holden (8.3%), Mazda (7.5%) and Ford (6.9%).
