New Car Market Treading Water

Media Release

6 December 2011

New Car Market Treading Water

New car sales are treading water with November registrations down 3.8% (225 units) compared with November 2010 but were up 4% (216 units) on last month (October). The commercial vehicle market remains strong with registrations up 11.7% (177 units) November 2011 verse November 2010. Year to date passenger cars are just ahead of 2010 (58,693 verse 57,481) by a slim margin of 2.1%, however commercials are ahead 14.3% (19,471 verse 17,028).

“We anticipated last month’s general election would have a negative impact on vehicle sales, so to come out of the month slightly ahead of October was good” said Perry Kerr, Chief Executive Officer of the Motor Industry Association. “Year to date the numbers reflect the serious stock shortages that impacted on the industry. Commercial sales are however buoyant so there must be some life in the underlying economy” he said.

In the passenger car segment Toyota took out the top place with just over 20% of the market, followed by Holden (12.5%) with Ford in third place (just under 11%). Year to date Toyota and Holden take out the first two positions followed by Hyundai who has just under 10% of the market. In the commercial segment Toyota retains first position with 23.7% of the market, followed by Ford 17.9% with Mitsubishi in third position.

The Toyota Corolla maintains top spot as the best-selling passenger car (439) followed by the Hyundai i30 (238) with the Toyota RAV4 (221) in third position. Year to date the Corolla is number one followed by the Suzuki Swift and Holden Commodore. In November the Ford Ranger was the best-selling commercial vehicle with 264 registrations. Toyota took out the next two positions with the Hilux (259) and the Hiace (122).

ENDS.

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