Vehicle sales hit brakes

New vehicle sales in Western Australia continue to perform far below last year, with year-to-date sales down 7.9 per cent for the same period in 2013, according to new figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

The fall for the year to November is more than 9,000, from 115,257 in 2013 to only 106,200 so far this year.

WA’s performance is the worst in the nation bar Tasmania, and far exceeds the national drop of 2.2 per cent.

Just for November, the figure was even worse, down 9.6 per cent to 8,876, double the national drop for the month.

SUV sales bucked the trend, 0.6 per cent higher compared with last November, and effectively unchanged in terms of year-to-date sales.

Passenger vehicles, which represent more than 40 per cent of the market, fell 11.9 per cent compared with last year’s year to date figures, hastened by a 17.3 per cent fall in November.

Heavy commercial vehicle sales also tumbled, 21.1 per cent down on last November, although they represent a small segment of the total market at a total of just 243 for the month.

Comparing figures for this November to the previous, the big players all took a bath in WA, with Holden 21.6 per cent lower, Honda sliding 15.5 per cent, Hyundai down 7.3 per cent and Toyota 5.9 per cent.

In terms of year-to-date performances, it is Honda that is down the most out of major sellers, coming in at 2,750 over the 11 month period, a drop of 31.3 per cent.

Holden sales are down 6.7 per cent to just more than 9,900, Toyota 7.3 per cent lower to 21,905 and Hyundai in a double digit fall of 10.5 per cent to 12,760.

Passenger vehicles sales are generally seen as a leading indicator of consumer confidence and discretionary spending, while commercial sales reflect business confidence.

The figures appear to show that pessimistic projections for state final demand this year may be correct.