WA leads in vehicle sales

Western Australia was the only major market to counter a negative trend in Australian motor vehicle sales.

National vehicle sales fell more than 5 per cent in August amid concern over high fuel prices and rising interest rates.

New vehicle sales hit 9,736 in WA, a jump of 11.7 per cent for the month (compared to August 2005) taking the year-to-date total to 72,124, a 10.4 per cent rise on the previous corresponding period.

Toyota was the big seller again, with 2,325 vehicles sold compared to 1,263 Holdens and 1,194 Fords. Toyota claims almost 23 per cent of the market for the year to date, against 15 per cent for Holden and under 11 per cent for Ford.

Mitsubishi, Nissan and Mazda are all neck-and-neck for fourth place, with year-to-date market shares at or around 6 per cent.

Isuzu claims the lead in trucks, clearly ahead of Hino.

Official national VFACTS figures released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries show that the market fell 5.2 per cent on last August, with year-to-date sales down 3.4 per cent on the same period of 2005.

The decline comes after four years of record growth.

On present trends the industry predicts it will sell about 970,000 vehicles by year's end, compared with the FCAI's forecast at the beginning of the year of 980,000 and a record 988,269 in 2005.

In an announcement, Toyota said its launch of their new-generation Camry has pushed Australia's top selling car brand to another record sales month.

Nationally, Toyota sold 18,585 cars in August - an increase of 3.7 per cent over its previous record for the month set last year.

According to the VFACTS data, within the overall market, various segments are showing conflicting trends.