New vehicle sales come off record highs

3rd May 2006

New vehicle sales come off record highs

In only two of the last thirty years has April posted higher new car sales than March, and 2006 was no exception. A short selling month and a very strong March saw new car sales reduce to 5109 from March’s 7114, but more significantly this figure was 7.4% down on April 2005 and was behind April 2004 as well. New commercial vehicle sales of 1504 were 21.1% down on April 2004, confirming that economic conditions are starting to affect the business sector.

It wasn’t all due to the economy though. With a late Easter and with ANZAC , April 2006 had only 17 selling days compared with 20 in the same month in 2004 – this year’s daily selling rate was actually higher at 389 instead of 371

Year to date April, new car sales are holding at 4.2% higher than the same period last year, but new commercials are trailing by 6.3%.

“It appears that the industry is starting to experience the predicted levelling out after its unbroken five year boom,” said Motor Industry Association CEO Perry Kerr. “There’s no question that trading conditions are tougher, exemplified by the collapse in used import sales,” (Used import cars and commercials were a massive 26% and 33% down respectively in April compared to April 2005).

Leading new vehicle seller continues to be Toyota, with an 18.6% share of the new vehicle market year to date. Holden and Ford are neck and neck for second, with 13.08% and 13.06% respectively.

Falcon beat Commodore by just one unit in April, but Commodore holds onto the top selling model title year to date, with Corolla second and Falcon third.

Sheet 1: Top fifteen distributors, full year 2005, month of April and YTD 2006, total vehicles, new cars, new commercials.

Sheet 2: Top fifteen sellers by model, full year 2005, month of April and YTD 2006, top ten rental cars April 2006.

ENDS

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