March vehicle sales down, Utes dominate.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industry has today released the latest new vehicle sales for the month of March. The highlight being light commercial vehicles (LCV) occupying the top three spots, the lowlight being an overall decrease of 7.1 per cent of overall sales.

99,442 new vehicles left dealerships in March, but that’s down 7,546 vehicles for the same period in 2018.

Tony Weber, chief executive of the FCAI, indicated current economic conditions played a roll. “We are seeing a cautious consumer approach at the moment, and this is not surprising given the number of economic headwinds in the Australian market.”

The Toyota Hilux sits at the top of the chart with a 4.1 per cent rise via 4527 sales followed by the Ford Ranger with 3721 and the Mitsubishi Triton with 2666. The latter two suffered declines of -8.4 per cent and -14.2 per cent respectively. 

Holden are struggling to stay in the top ten, while only Mitsubishi and Kia have something to celebrate after moving up the chart slightly. Overall LVC’s occupied 67.5 per cent of all new sales during March, a rise pf 4.5 per cent over 2018

If you look at individual states only South Australia and Tasmania showed growth, all other states and territories registered declines during March.