September tops the ton

Hyundai's i30 has sprinted from out of nowhere to take the mantle of Australia's most popular car during the month of September.

Information to hand reveals that the i30 sold close to 2000 more cars last month than during September 2014. While the i30 broke away from the field last month, it remains Australia's fourth most popular car to date for 2015.

Sales figures to be released by the FCAI this morning are expected to show industry statistician VFACTS recorded over 100,000 units sold last month – nearly 6500 more than September of 2014.

That monthly tally places the industry nearly 30,000 units ahead of the same period last year, standing at over 860,000 sales so far in 2015. With 2014 marking a new record for sales of new cars and commercials, 2015 is looking set to be bigger still. Last year the final result was over 1.1 million vehicles sold, but 2015 may set a new record again, possibly as high as 1.2 million.

Passenger vehicles enjoyed a respectable month in September, totalling more than 46,000 vehicles sold – nearly a thousand more than September 2015. That said, total passenger vehicle sales for the year so far are running over 11,000 units behind the same period in 2014.

But SUVs are more than making up for that. In September, the popular, high-riding family wagons posted nearly 37,000 sales, around 7000 more than the same month the year before. For the year to date SUVs are over 40,000 units ahead.

Light commercial vehicles, approaching 16,000 sales in September, are nearly 1500 units behind the figure for September 2014, but are 250 units ahead on the strength of year-to-date performance.

Among passenger cars, micro, light and large segments all lost ground during the month, but all other passenger car segments were up. In year to date terms, only light, medium and people movers are ahead of the same time in 2014.

SUVs are up across the board, both for the month and for the year to date. All light commercial vehicle segments were down for the month, other than vans and cab/chassis models below 2.5 tonnes. Things are rosier for LCVs across the year so far, however, with only 4x2 pick-ups and cab/chassis models falling below the figure for last year – by about 2500 sales.

The 10 top selling brands for the month of September were Toyota (nearly 17,000), Mazda (nearly 11,000), Holden (over 9000), Hyundai (also over 9000), Mitsubishi (nearly 7000), Ford (nearly 6000), Nissan (over 5000), Volkswagen (also above 5000), Subaru (over 3600) and Honda (just under 3600). Over the course of the year so far, Toyota is leading the pack, a smidge under 150,000, Mazda remains in a distant second at almost 86,000 and Hyundai rounds out the podium at over 77,000. The also-rans are: Holden (nearly 77,000), Mitsubishi, Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen, Subaru and Honda.

During September, the three best selling cars were: Hyundai i30, Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla. Toyota Corolla remains the country's most popular car for the year to date, followed by Mazda3 and Toyota HiLux in that order.