New passenger car sales stumbled in August with 4417 registrations, down 1.2 percent on July's figures. Commercial sales suffered an even bigger drop with 1076 registrations, a drop of 15% from the 1267 vehicles registered in July.
The ever positive CEO of the Motor Industry Association Perry Kerr says the results were to be expected, "It is still difficult trading conditions, the year to date total is in line with our revised industry forecast' says Kerr. 'The winter months are always slower for the industry, we are hopeful that the first days of spring and warmer times ahead that the market will pick up'.
No doubt every new car distributor in the country will be hoping for a long hot summer if it means a boost in sales.
Highlights
- The Holden Commodore was the top selling passenger model (311 sales) as a result of heavy promotion (in readiness for the new model) and strong rental sales.
- The push to sell the Commodore is a possible reason for the very average sales of the all-new Holden Cruze (56 sales).
- Rental sales also helped push the Ford Mondeo into third spot in the individual rankings for the month.
- Year to date the Toyota Corolla still continues as the country's best-selling model.
- Mitsubishi make a comeback into the top ten best models with the Outlander claiming tenth spot for August.
- Nissan helped by the recent launch of several new models holds seventh place overall for the month however, not one model makes it into the top fifteen individual list.
More information
August 2009 new car sales stats - (92 Kb PDF)