The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries’ (FCAI) new vehicles sales figures for September show a 6.9% decline of new car sales in September 2019 compared to September 2018.

This is a decline of 6,530 vehicles.

Year-to-date (January 2019 – September), a total of 811,464 new vehicles were sold, a decrease of 69,541 vehicles, or 7.9% over the same period last year.

FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said these slower sales are in line with the broader economic environment in Australia.

“Of particular concern to the industry is the restrictive regulatory lending conditions currently facing consumers,” Mr Weber said.

“The question has to be asked – are these results telling us we have made it too difficult for people to finance basic purchases in today’s Australia?”

Source: FCAI
Total vehicle sales September

Responsible lending and access to credit – such as car loans – have been a hot topic lately, with the Treasurer himself pushing particularly hard against overly stringent lending standards.

“It’s in everyone’s interest that the aspirations of hard-working families are not collateral damage in this regulatory process,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said at a property summit last week.

“If responsible lending laws are applied too stringently, they will also negatively impact consumer behaviour.

“Clearly, the risk that the provision of credit may cause substantial hardship to some should not result in a significantly reduced ability to access credit by the vast majority of borrowers.”

September car sales – by the numbers

Toyota was the market leader in September, followed by Mitsubishi and Mazda.

These brands made 15,166, 8,990 and 8,168 sales in September respectively.

Year-to-date, Toyota remains the market leader with 154,515 sales so far in 2019.

Rank Car brand Total sales YTD Total sales September 2019
1 Toyota 154,515 15,166
2 Mazda 79,057 8,168
3 Hyundai 66,489 7,245
4 Mitsubishi 64,506 8,990
5 Ford 48,604 4,783
6 Kia 46,360 5,128
7 Nissan 38,343 4,651
8 Volkswagen 37,709 3,816
9 Holden 34,215 2,863
10 Honda 34,210 3,404

In terms of individual cars, the Toyota Hilux was (as usual) the most popular, with 3,364 individual sales in September.

This is a 22.5% fall from September last year however.

The third most popular car, the Mitsubishi Triton, led Mitsubishi’s charge up the rankings with a 61.6% increase in sales to 3,001.

Rank Vehicle Sep-19 Sep-18 % diff
1 Toyota Hilux 3,364 4,338 -22.5%
2 Ford Ranger 3,116 3,228 -3.5%
3 Mitsubishi Triton 3,001 1,857 61.6%
4 Hyundai i30 2,447 2,508 -2.4%
5 Mitsubishi ASX 2,419 2,138 13.1%
6 Mazda CX-5 2,335 1,506 56.4%
7 Toyota Corolla 2,219 2,917 -23.9%
8 Kia Cerato 2,022 1,574 28.5%
9 Nissan XTrail 1,769 1,908 -7.3%
10 Mitsubishi Outlander 1,731 1,404 23.3%



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