During 2015, more Australians than ever went out to buy a new motor vehicle. They bought 1,155,408 new passenger cars, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and commercial vehicles. This was 3.8% more than in 2014 and it broke the record set in 2013.
SUVs were so popular, sales grew 15.9% and took up a whopping 35.4% of the market, up from 31.7% in 2014. In fact, Australians bought more SUVs than small cars, even though small cars were four of the top 10 bestsellers.
Sales have doubled
The popularity of SUVs has continued to rise each year. Since 2005, sales of SUVs in Australia have more than doubled. Meanwhile, sales of passenger cars have fallen 15%.
This does not mean that more of us are driving off road. Today’s drivers tend to choose SUVs for the extra height, making some of their daily tasks easier. They used to do this in hatchbacks. Many people are simply choosing an SUV as the best all round family car.
Does this mean Australians no longer worry about the effects of SUVs on the environment? It’s not necessarily so. Sales of hybrid SUVs have more than doubled to 1,152 while buyers purchased 11.5% fewer hybrid cars.
According to Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) figures, NSW saw the biggest growth of all the states except for Tasmania in 2015, with sales up 6.9%, compared to 12% in Tasmania.
Top brands
The top selling brand was Toyota by far, with 17.8% of the market, compared to Mazda with 9.9% and Holden with 8.9%. More than 42,000 new Toyota Corollas drove out of the garage, the most popular car of all. The fastest growing “affordable” brand was Mini, selling 30% more cars in 2015 than in 2014.
These record sales of cars suggests many Australians are not feeling too badly done by in this economic climate. A Reserve Bank of Australia study suggested a 1% increase in housing wealth is associated with a 0.5% increase in new vehicle registrations.
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