WA motor vehicle sales still strong

Motor vehicle sales in Western Australia again outpaced the rest of the states, with year-to-date growth at 10.7 per cent on the back of 90,571 new vehicle sales for the nine months ending September 30.

WA remained the strongest state leading Australia’s car industry, which is set for a record result with sales in 2007 already up by more than 8 per cent.

But the state’s momentum is clearly waning, with September’s monthly sales growth of 5.4 per cent slipping behind that of Victoria, which had 6.5 per cent growth for the month compared with the previous corresponding month.

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.

In its latest VFACTS sales bulletin, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said sales of new cars and trucks rose 4.4 per cent in September, with the market selling 83,489 new vehicles compared with 79,993 to the same month the previous 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.

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.

The real battle is among the next tier, with Hyundai’s fourth position under threat as several of the major manufacturers – Mitsubishi (6,195 motor vehicle sales year-to-date), Nissan (6,177) and Honda (4,850) – all recorded growth above 20 per cent for the year-to-date, while Mazda (5,818) gained more than 18 per cent.

In comparison, Hyundai slipped 7.7 per cent to 6,976. The number two seller, Holden, has gained 4 per cent for the year to record 12,707 new car sales while Ford has slipped 3.8 per cent to 8,192.

WA’s booming economy has also led to some strong jumps in luxury marque sales. Lotus sales have jumped 700 per cent – to eight for the year so far compared with 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.