New car sales down 15% in May

New vehicle sales in Western Australia were down 15.8 per cent in May, adding to a sharp decline in year-to-date activity, though one bright spot was a pick-up in sales of luxury marques.

About 8,300 new vehicles were sold in WA last month, bringing the year-to-date total to 42,737 – 8.6 per cent down on the year to May 2014.

Toyota, Holden and Ford all experienced a drop in sales in May, down 12.3 per cent, 24.8 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.

Mitsubishi sales were down 11.6 per cent to 549 sales in May, while Nissan sales dropped 31.9 per cent to 404.

Hyundai sales also fell by 25.1 per cent, to 896 sales.

However, sports and luxury car sales performed better during the month, with Porsche sales 23.3 per cent better to 37 sales, while Lexus sales were up 73.2 per cent to 71 sales.

Three Ferraris were sold in May, bringing the year-to-date total to 11, which is 37.5 per cent better than the previous corresponding period.

BMW sales were 27.4 per cent higher at 149 sales in May, while three Bentley sales drove the month’s variance up by 200 per cent.

Two Lamborghinis were sold in May, bringing the year’s total to six, compared with none for the previous corresponding period.

On a national level, new car sales were down 1.3 per cent to 93,327 in May, however, in the year-to-date, sales were up by 2.5 per cent.

The Northern Territory experienced a surge in new car sales last month, up 17 per cent, while sales in South Australia were 5.8 per cent worse off.