Part of the fiction of a subdued retailing climate ignores the fact that selling new and used cars is part of retailing.
That’s how the US treats them, but we separate them here and don’t include them in our monthly retail sales figures.
For that reason, many commentators either forget about what’s happening in the sector, or ignore the monthly reports from the industry and the ABS, or treat them as afterthoughts.
As many did in commentary after the RBA sat on rates for a 5th month in a row yesterday.
Unlike retail sales, which are doing OK (but are softish in some sectors, as some analysts pointed out yesterday), car sales are booming and have been all year.
A combination of deliveries from the tax-driven spurt at the end of last year, the 5% cut in tariffs from the start of 2010 and the stronger Australian dollar, which has allowed price cuts or more features in some models with no price change, have been the main drivers, along with continuing employment growth and confidence among consumers.
Sales of luxury and near luxury models and Sports Utility Vehicles have also been notable features of the sales growth in 2010 so far.
In fact so strong is the pace of sales in the first 9 months of 2010, that the industry now reckons full year sales will return to more than a million units by the end of December, and there’s a chance an all time high will be set.
September was a record sales month for new cars, with Australians purchasing 85,054 new vehicles last month – an 8.9% increase over the same period in 2009.
The result brings the year’s total to 780,720, a year on year increase of 14.5% that has encouraged the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries to lift its sales expectation from 980,000.
If car sales continue at this pace they will top the 1.1 million mark setting an all time high and breaking the 1.049 million record set in 2007 and topping the 1.012 million units sold in 2008.
Sales in 2009 were 937,328, according to the FCAI figures, down 7.4% on 2008.
FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said a statement yesterday that the number of units sold during September was a new record for the month.
The previous monthly record for September was 84,470 in 2005.
"It is encouraging to see that sales to private buyers recorded the largest increase this month (up 14.2 per cent) which is further evidence of renewed confidence in the marketplace,’’ Mr McKellar said in a statement.
"Given the continued strength of the market in recent months, the industry has revised its annual sales forecast to more than one million sales – up from the previous projection of more than 980,000.
"The Australian market has only twice recorded a market with more than 1 million sales so this will be quite an achievement."
The figures show that the Australian love affair with the Sports Utility Vehicle (AKA the old station wagon and people mover) continues to burn bright.
Sales of four-wheel drives rose 36.3% in September, followed by a 3.1% rise in passenger cars and light commercials up 1.7 per cent.
Compact SUVs were the biggest-growing segment by some margin, with a 53.8% jump compared with this time last year.
Medium-size (+26.8%) and luxury SUVs (+20.4%) occupied second and third; small cars were the best result for passenger cars (+9.2%) and they remain the nation’s most purchased vehicle type. Diesel held a near 25% share of all sales last month, up 2.5 points on last year.
Sales of diesel powered vehicles were up 20.71% on this month last year.
Toyota had its ninth consecutive month of 2010 as the best-selling brand, though Mazda had a notable September after dislodging Ford for third place. Toyota sales eased in September though.
Higher sales of the Mazda3 contributed significantly to a year on year sales increase of 22.5%, though the figure wasn’t enough to prevent Holden’s Commodore (4038) from securing the top spot.
The Commodore almost sold double the number of its arch rival, the Ford Falcon. Ford’s sales fell 1.6% for the month, one of 13 brands to record negative growth for the month (BMW was another).
