New Vehicle Market
The new vehicle market ended 2009 strongly to record annual sales that exceeded industry forecasts with many of the additional sales attributed to the Federal Government’s business tax break.
Official VFACTS data shows 937,328 passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles were sold in the calendar year 2009 (down 7.4 per cent compared to 2008).
The year ended strongly with a record number of vehicles sold in the month of December (up 15.9% on 2008).
Given all the challenges and uncertainties thrown at the industry by the global economy this is an exceptional result.
The ‘game changing’ measure that restored confidence in the marketplace and stimulated additional demand was the bonus tax break for business.
The final outcome for the year has surpassed the industry’s original expectations by some 57,000 vehicles and a significant proportion of this additional volume can be attributed to the tax break.
Toyota was the best performing brand in 2009 for the seventh year in a row with a market share of 21.4%, ahead of Holden with 12.8% and Ford with 10.3%
The most popular vehicle model, for the fourteenth year in a row, was the Holden Commodore; ahead of the Toyota Corolla then the Toyota Hilux.
