Car sales in Western Australia appear to be slowing, after the state's industry recorded the second month in a row of single digit growth - 7.4 per cent for June compared to the same period last year.
Car sales in Western Australia appear to be slowing, after the state's industry recorded the second month in a row of single digit growth - 7.4 per cent for June compared to the same period last year.
Almost 60,000 new vehicles have been sold in WA this calendar year, with 11,995 changing hands last month.
While the year-to-date figures still appear strong at 11.7 per cent for the first six months of the calendar year, the June numbers repeat those from May and appear to show a slowing trend which started in March, with a brief interuption in April.
The figures come off an enormous 2006, with 110,661 vehicles sold during last year, a rise from 100,595 the previous year and in contrast to most other state's where sales went backwards year-on-year. That growth continued in WA into 2007 with January and February recording more than 17 per cent growth.
WA's monthly growth in June was below that recorded in most other states and territories, notably the major markets of NSW and Victoria, putting WA in front of South Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania.
On a year-to-date basis, WA remains in second place behind the ACT's 14.9 per cent.
Toyota remains the dominant force in WA car sales with 13,618 new vehicle sales for the year-to-date, followed by Holden (8,626) and then Ford (5,507).
Hyundai has slumped to 4,389 new vehciles sales compared to the same time last year when it was breathing down Ford's neck at 5,246.
Closing in on Hyundai are Nissan (4,307) and Mitsubishi (4,136) which have both imptoved their positions from last year while Mazda (3,988) and Honda (3,347) have also made significant gains.
At the luxury end of the new car market, 839 Mercedes-Benz vehicles have been sold and 720 BMWs, both up substantially on last year at the same time.
Nationally, Australia's buoyant economy pushed sales of new cars and trucks in Australia over the one million mark for the first time in a financial year.
The result, which included record demand in June, also has put the vehicle sector on track to sell one million vehicles in the 2007 calendar year.
In its latest VFACTS sales bulletin today the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said sales for the 12 months to the end of June reached 1,004,097.
Demand for the first half of 2007 was up 8.5 per cent to 524,376 while sales in June hit a record 105,097, a nine per cent jump on the 96,448 sold in the same month last year.
The results suggested a full year market in 2007 of about 1.028 million vehicles.
