September VFACTS: COVID-19 continues to plague market

The Australian new-car market has endured all sorts of strife over the past couple of years, but it has also been resilient in the face of tighter lending restrictions, bushfires and, of course, a global pandemic.

VFACTS figures released today reveal that sales last month and sales for 2020 so far are coincidentally intersecting at about one in five sales lost – compared respectively with September 2019 and the first nine months of last year.

In total, 68,985 vehicles were sold last month, a 20.5 per cent loss measured against sales for September 2019, itself a month of lower sales. For the year to date, sales of 811,464 vehicles represent a market decline of 21.8 per cent.

It should come as no surprise to learn that states or territories where motor vehicle sales actually grew during the month were those where COVID-19 has been all but eradicated. These were the ACT (+3.4%), the NT (+10.6%) and WA (+1.5%).

At the other end of the scale was Victoria, where Stage 4 lockdown restrictions held sales down to just 10,447 units – a drop of 57.7 per cent from September of 2019. Many of those sales would have been in rural Victoria, which remained in Stage 3 restrictions after Melbourne was placed in Stage 4 lockdown from July.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) remains fairly upbeat, however, with chief executive Tony Weber drawing solace from a federal government initiative to ease lending restrictions.

“First of all, we are seeing COVID-19 health restrictions across Australia, and particularly in metropolitan Melbourne, continue to ease,” Weber was quoted as saying in a press release issued today.

“Another sign that the market may improve is the announcement by the federal government last week of an easing of lending conditions for private buyers and small business in Australia.

“Freeing up restrictions around financial lending will act as a stimulus for Australian industry,” Weber concluded.

Top 10 brands for the year to date:
Toyota – 138,622
Mazda – 60,574
Hyundai – 45,219
Mitsubishi – 41,957
Ford – 40,938
Kia – 40,696
Volkswagen – 29,583
Nissan – 26,567
Subaru – 21,994
Honda – 21,877

Of the brands appearing in the top 10, only Ford sold more cars last month than in September 2019, helped primarily by more than 600 extra sales of the Ford Ranger ute (pictured, see below), the top-selling vehicle for the month.

All 10 brands have lost sales for the year to date.

Top 10 vehicles for the month:
Ford Ranger – 3726
Toyota HiLux – 3610
Toyota RAV4 – 2433
Hyundai i30 – 1786
Mazda CX-5 – 1765
Toyota LandCruiser – 1599
Kia Cerato – 1599
Toyota Corolla – 1462
Mitsubishi Triton – 1466
Hyundai Tucson – 1199