New car sales continued to decline in October, despite 90,718 registrations, the market was down 5.3 per cent compared to October 2017.

 

Year-to-date sales currently at sit at 971,723, which is a 1.3 per cent dip from the same period in 2017 – which was a record year.

 

Sales in October fell across all states and territories compared to October 2017, other than Tasmania, which managed a 0.3 per cent increase.

 

New South Wales suffered the largest fall (-9.2 per cent), followed by Victoria (-4.2 per cent), Queensland (-2.7 per cent), Western Australia (-1.7 per cent), South Australia (-5.1 per cent), the ACT (-2.1 per cent) and the Northern Territory (-4.7 per cent).

 

Private sales fell by 12 per cent across all vehicle types for the month compared to October 2017, while business purchases also dropped by 4.1 per cent. With the advantage of taxpayer funds, Government purchases were up 6.7 per cent.

 

Tony Weber, the Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, acknowledged the ongoing softening in sales as the market continues to adjust after record sales over recent years.

 

“Total sales so far in 2018 are a modest 1.3 per cent below the same number during the 2017 record year. This demonstrates that the market is broadly holding firm, despite evolving consumer preferences demonstrated through the shift from passenger vehicles to SUVs,” Mr Weber said.

 

“Given the slowing housing market and the current drought, the overall result demonstrates the resilience of Australia’s competitive automotive market.”

 

Buyers continue to abandon passenger vehicles which fell 23.6 per cent. Passenger models now hold just 30.6 per cent market share.

 

SUVs picked up some of the slack with sales growing by 8.1 per cent in October. SUVs now represent a market share of 43.9 per cent. Interestingly, medium SUVs hold the greatest volume with 18.1 per cent of the total market in October.

 

For those who are interested, after medium SUVs, small cars hold the second largest share of the market with 15.8 per cent of the action.

 

The light commercial segment saw modest growth of 1 per cent with 199 additional sales.

 

Toyota was again the market leader in October with a whopping 19.6 per cent share, followed by Mazda and Hyundai. Toyota led Mazda with a margin of 9639 vehicle sales.

 

All eyes are on Holden to see if new management can reverse the current decline, however, the brand continued to slide to be down 32 per cent on October last year.

 

At the premium end Mercedes-Benz (down 14 per cent), Audi (down 13.4 per cent) and BMW (down 4.5 per cent) all found the conditions difficult.

 

The Toyota HiLux was the highest selling vehicle in October with sales of 4401, followed by the Ford Ranger (3511), Toyota Corolla (2663), Mazda 3 (2094) and the Hyundai i30 (2049).

 

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