Consumer uncertainty and continuing supply constraints resulting from the Japanese natural disaster have led to soft vehicle sales in July, according to figures released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).
Official VFACTS data shows 80,991 new vehicles were sold in July, 1.7% (or 1385) fewer vehicles than the same month in 2010.
“While the drop in sales in July is small compared to the same month last year, the overall drop in sales for the year to date of 5.9% indicates that consumers are continuing to delay new vehicle purchases”, said the FCAI Acting Chief Executive Steve Payne.
“The supply of vehicles and components from Japan, following the earthquake and tsunami in March, has improved, however sales of several popular models were still affected by supply constraints”, Mr Payne said.
“Sales of SUVs continue to grow, with an increase of 1.8% compared to July 2010 and, in particular, Luxury SUVs have had a very strong year, with year-to-date sales up 17.4%,” he said.
The Holden Commodore was the single best selling model in July with 3551 sales, followed by the Mazda 3 (3290), Toyota HiLux (3147) and Holden Cruze (3123).
Mr Payne said the FCAI is expecting that sales will return to long-term trends as the supply constraints are mitigated. “We expect annual sales to be around 1 million vehicles for 2011”, Mr Payne said.
Toyota re-claimed market leadership in July with 12,980 sales, followed by Holden with 10,819 and Ford (7769).
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