VFACTS September: Auto sales still sliding

UPDATE 03/10/2019 NOON: The official new car sales figures for September 2019 have been divulged by the FCAI, confirming a 6.9 per cent drop - a decrease of 6520 sales - compared to September 2018.

Thus far in 2019, overall Australian sales are down by 7.9 per cent, which is a drop of 69,541 vehicles for the nine months to September, and the FCAI's chief executive, Tony Weber, suggests that part of the reason could be due to stricter lending regulations.

"The question has to be asked – are these results telling us we have made it too difficult for people to finance basic purchases in today’s Australia?"

The September 2019 drop in sales is the 18th consecutive month that Australian new car sales have decreased.SUVs present a small ray of light, with a 1.1 per cent lift (41,861 units), while the passenger car (24,893 units) and ute (18,257 units) segments dropped by 18.3 and 5.4 per cent respectively.

"It is clear the slower sales rate the market is experiencing is in line with the broader economic environment in Australia," said Weber.

Toyota remains Australia's favourite new car brand with 15,166 sales, giving it a 17.2 per cent market share. Second place was Mitsubishi (8990, 10.2%), followed by Mazda (8168, 9.3%, 10.2%), Hyundai (7245, 8.2%) and Kia (5128, 5.8%).

The most popular car in Oz for September 2019 was the Toyota HiLux (3364), followed by the Ford Ranger (3116) and Mitsubishi Triton (3001), as utes dominated the top three. see below for the top 10 best-sellers list.

Australia’s new vehicle market continued its downward trend through the month of September, preliminary sales figures obtained by carsales have shown.

The numbers, which are yet to be confirmed by official monthly VFACTS sales data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries on Thursday, indicate the overall market dipped about seven per cent last month, compared to September 2018.

In all about 85,000 cars, SUVs and light commercial vehicles were sold in September, which was about 6000 fewer than the same month last year, and around 2000 up on August, when the market slumped by more than 10 per cent.

Toyota continued its stronghold as the market’s most popular marque, despite a sales decline of almost 13 per cent with just over 15,000 sales.

Mitsubishi was instead the biggest mover and shaker, with almost 9000 sales – up a sizeable 18 per cent month on month and enough to land a 10.6 per cent share of the sales pie.

In third place was ever-present Mazda, which reversed its recent form by posting a 15.5 per cent sales spike with nearly 8200 sales for the month.

Hyundai, Kia, Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen, Subaru and Honda rounded out the top 10, all finishing in the red save for Kia, which enjoyed 2.5 per cent growth in September.

The Toyota HiLux was again the top selling model in September with almost 3400 sales, followed by the Ford Ranger with more than 3100, while the Triton (3000) and ASX (2400) were strong performers respectively for Mitsubishi in third and fifth.

In between was the Hyundai i30 (2450), while strong CX-5 sales (2350) saw the mid-size SUV finish sixth and top the charts both in its segment and for Mazda, whose former best-seller the Mazda3 was outside the top 10 most popular models with less than 1700 sales.

The Toyota Corolla (2200) was relegated to seventh, ahead of the Nissan X-TRAIL (1770), Mitsubishi Outlander (1730) and Toyota RAV4 (1715) in 10th.

Passenger vehicles bore the brunt of the September sales decline by being down more than 19 per cent compared with September 2018.

Instead buyers increasingly opted for SUVs -- a market that enjoyed sustained growth of 1.5 per cent – while the popularity of light commercial vehicles waned by six per cent.

September top 10 models:
Toyota HiLux – 3364
Ford Ranger – 3116
Mitsubishi Triton – 3001
Hyundai i30 – 2447
Mitsubishi ASX – 2419
Mazda CX-5– 2355
Toyota Corolla – 2219
Kia Cerato – 2022
Nissan X-TRAIL – 1769
Mitsubishi Outlander– 1731