The burgeoning Australian economy is highlighted by record new car sales in the month of March.
A total of 94,744 vehicles were sold last month, eclipsing by 352 the previous March record of 94,392 set in 2007.
Reflecting the impact of our confident economy’s increased activity, new car sales to rental companies increased by 331.5 per cent in March. Sales of SUVs were up by 44.1 per cent for the month, passenger vehicle sales grew by 23.5 per cent and even heavy commercial vehicles grew by 20.2 per cent.
Toyota has now been our number one best-selling automotive brand every month for the last five years. In March, Toyota’s market share grew to 21.4 per cent with sales of 20,306 vehicles.
Holden remains our number two brand with a market share of 12.4 per cent garnered from sales of 11,795. Commodore remains Australia’s best-selling car with 4,209 exiting showrooms in March
After being beaten by Hyundai in February, Ford bounced back to number three position last month with a market share of 8.5 per cent from sales of 8,092 vehicles.
Hyundai was our number four most popular brand for the month with sales of 7,797 vehicles. That was actually Hyundai’s best ever March result since the company launched in Australia back in 1986.
And Hyundai’s European-style i30 model was our best-selling small car in March with sales of 3,678 for a segment share of 16.4 per cent. “More and more Australians are discovering the quality and value of today’s Hyundai range – over 800,000 new Hyundais have now been delivered to Australian customers since the brand entered the market,” revealed Hyundai’s Director of Sales, Damien Meredith.
A few other importers are looking pleased with themselves after the release of the March results.
Mazda sold 7,453 vehicles – the second-best March result ever for the Japanese importer. March also ended the Japanese Financial Year and Mazda Australia recorded its best-ever FY result with sales of 79,829.
They’ll be clinking their beer glasses in Munich with BMW Australia posting its best-ever March with sales of 1,479 vehicles and rounding-out the company’s biggest first quarter in history with a total of 4,316 BMWs finding Aussie homes.
Fellow BMW brand, MINI also achieved its best month ever with 249 sales beating the previous record of 240 set in August 2007.
And Subaru is all smiles with record March sales of 3,679 vehicles. Included in that figure, the Forester maintained its position as our best-selling compact SUV with sales of 1,382.
