Australia loves SUV’s…
The latest car sales figures show Australian’s are continuing their love-affair with SUV’s.
The Toyota Hilux was the top seller
Official car sales data for April has been released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and show 79,097 vehicles were sold in the month, an increase of 6.6% on April 2011.
But SUV’s stole the show according to FCAI Chief Executive Ian Chalmers.
“Yet again, SUVs dominate the Australian vehicle market, with sales increasing for all sizes of SUVs in the private, business and rental sectors,”
“This month however we can also see an interesting emergence of customer preference for diesel powered SUVs.”
Private sales for diesel SUVs increased by 56% compared to the same month in 2011.
Similarly, non-private sales for diesel SUVs increased by 47.5%.
Sales of locally manufactured vehicles are up 17.1% compared to the same period last year.
The top selling vehicle in April was the Toyota Hilux just ahead of the Mazda 3 which pipped the Corolla by around 500 sales.
Toyota was the best performing brand selling 16,568 vehicles, followed by Mazda with 7,681 and then Holden with 7,589.
Some of the individual highlights include…
- Hyundai finished in fourth position overall with 7,017 sales, the Veloster topped the Sports segment with 297 sales and a segment share of 19.3%.
- Strong Dualis and X-Trail says helped Nissan move 4,686 vehicles which represents a 10.3% improvement on last April.
- The Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands are on the ascendancy recording their best April ever.
- Individually Jeep sales are up 237%.
- Holden’s locally-produced models were the company’s highest-selling products, accounting for 70.3% of the brands total April sales.
Joel Helmes
