SUV sales soar despite fuel costs
Soaring fuel prices have certainly forced buyers to reconsider their priorities when looking at a new car; however Toyota has labelled the small car dash a simplistic approach to the problem.
The company's senior executive director sales and marketing David Buttner has said that these generalisations ignore the strong growth in sales of sports-utility vehicles (SUV).
The sales of these SUV's has increased by 13.2 percent for this year alone - making it the fastest growing segment at a rate of more than treble the overall market.
"Rising fuel prices have definitely accelerated demand for fuel-efficient four-cylinder cars," Mr Buttner said. "However, families and other SUV buyers are focused on requirements such as space, comfort, performance and reliability - as well as fuel efficiency,"
Australian motorists purchased almost 110,000 SUV's in the first half of this year - with 20 out of 23 manufacturers improving over the same period last year - second only to the small-car total of 123,000.
Toyota leads this sales list with its Prado, Kluger and RAV4 models which take the top three positions in a segment which offers over 50 models.
SUV SALES BY MODEL 2008 (TO 30 JUNE)
1. Toyota Prado 7,854 +4.8%
2. Toyota Kluger 7,513 +278.7%
3. Toyota RAV4 7,684 +6.7%
4. Ford Territory 7,266 -19.4%
5. Subaru Forester 6,910 +13.2%
6. Toyota LandCruiser 6,407 +48.0%
SUV SALES BY MARQUE 2008 (TO 30 JUNE)
MARQUE SALES +/- MARKET SHARE
1. Toyota 29,458 +40.2% 26.9%
2. Nissan 10,852 +0.2% 9.9%
3. Subaru 10,707 +6.2% 9.8%
4. Ford 8,417 -20.2% 7.7%
5. Mitsubishi 7,841 +0.7% 7.1%
SEGMENT 109,669 +13.2%
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