Australian new car sales in July 2018 have slumped 7.8%, despite the same number of days to close deals and get customers over the line.
On average, there were 277 more vehicles sold every day in July 2017 compared to last month – resulting in just 85,551 cars finding new homes, 7203 fewer than last year, according to VFACTS data provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
Passenger vehicle sales are down more than 20%, shy 7425 over July 2017, and SUVs while still strong took a 1% hit (only 354 sales short), although light commercials managed to claw a 0.1% gain over July 2017 – just 19 vehicles.
Every manufacturer in the top 10 sales race held their ground from June, Toyota on 128,769 sales for the year keeps Mazda at bay by 7995 sales sitting on 68,264, while Hyundai trailed the Japanese leaders by 11,260 sales on 57,004.
Toyota Hilux only sold five more units more than July 2017 making it the only percentage gain until position six on the top 10 models list – the Hyundai i30 – which did 2.6% better than last year with 2178 sales. Top-selling Hilux beat Ranger for second (down 4.1%), Corolla for third (down a massive 19%), Mazda 3 (down 0.9%), Toyota LandCruiser in seventh place (up 11.1%) and RAV4 in eighth (up 6.7%), the Volkswagen Golf (up a staggering 60% on July 2017), and Nissan X-Trail in tenth (up 9.6%).
Matching the models in sales figures this month, every state recorded stagnant sales except for Tasmania which managed a decent 5.9% increase at 1457 sales.
The biggest loser in percentage was the Northern Territory (down 18.8% or just 172 sales short) compared with July 2017; but New South Wales was down 2945 sales (down 9.6%), Victoria tripped (down 6.3%) losing 1663 sales, Queensland was down 1073 sales (-5.8%), South Australia was down 641 sales (-11.3%) and Western Australia dropped 610 sales (-8.1%), and the ACT was exactly 180 sales short of last year’s efforts (only 1301 versus 1481 July 2017).
Further losses were seen in large cars, down 56.3%), mid-size passenger cars, which lost 31.3% on July 2017, sports cars were gauged 38.2%, and upper large passenger cars stalled 46.1% against last year’s numbers.
Some redeeming gains were found in the smallest packages, with micro cars leap-frogging 31.8% over July 2017, and small SUVs managed to hang in there for 3.4% over last year, while the ever-popular 4X4 pick-ups kept the heat on for a 6.4% improvement, joined by the and upper large SUV category which hold 4.1% over July 2017.
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