Australia's car industry is set for a big sales push in the final quarter this year, as the market heads for a record result with sales in 2007 already up by more than 8 per cent.
Australia's car industry is set for a big sales push in the final quarter this year, as the market heads for a record result with sales in 2007 already up by more than 8 per cent.
Western Australia again outpaced the rest of the states, with its year-to-date growth at 10.7 per cent on the back of 90,571 new vehicle sales, though in September it was clearly losing pace, slipping behind Victoria which had 6.5 per cent growth for the month compared to the previous corresponding month. WA's September growth was 5.4 per cent.
The ACT was the strongest market for the month at 9.2 per cent, taking it to 15.2 per cent for the year-to-date.
Queensland is the second strongest state for the year at 9.1 per cent, recording 5.7 per cent growth for the month.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said market fundamentals remained strong despite the interest rate rise in August and a tightening of credit conditions more generally.
In its latest VFACTS sales bulletin, the FCAI said sales of new cars and trucks rose 4.4 per cent in September with the market retailing 83,489 new vehicles compared to 79,993 in the same month last year.
That took demand for the first three quarters of 2007 to 782,362, a rise of 8.3 per cent over the same period in 2006.
Nationally, passenger car sales were down 2.3 per cent in September, the result of a 10 per cent fall in demand for small cars but the industry remains on track to sell more than one million vehicles over the full 12 months, reaching the milestone for the first time in a calendar year.
The FCAI said Toyota was the top selling car company in September with 18,358 vehicles ahead of Holden on 11,632 and Ford on 8,818.
Toyota also led the market on a year-to-date basis with 174,866 vehicles. In WA, Toyota also dominates with 12.2 per cent growth year-to-date with 21,072 new vehicle sales.
But it is being challenged by most of the major manufacturers with Mitsubishi, Nissan and Honda all on growth above 20 per cent for the year-to-date, while Mazda gained more than 18 per cent. The number two seller, Holden, has gained 4 per cent for the year while Ford has slipped 3.8 per cent. WA's fourth biggest seller, Hyundai has slipped 7.7 per cent.
WA's booming economy has also seen some strong jumps in luxury marque sales. Lotus sales have jumped 700 per cent - to eight for the year so far, compared to one last year, Ferrari sales leapt 275 per cent to 15, Lamborghini was up 250 per cent to seven and 117 per cent more Bentleys have been sold with 13 changing hands for 2007.
