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 Prado7,854+4.8%
2. Toyota Kluger7,513+278.7%
3. Toyota RAV47,684+6.7%
4. Ford Territory7,266-19.4%
5. Subaru Forester6,910+13.2%
6. Toyota LandCruiser6,407+48.0%
SUV SALES BY MARQUE 2008 (TO 30 JUNE)
MARQUESALES+/-MARKET SHARE
1. Toyota29,458+40.2%26.9%
2. Nissan10,852+0.2%9.9%
3. Subaru10,707+6.2%9.8%
4. Ford8,417-20.2%7.7%
5. Mitsubishi7,841+0.7%7.1%
SEGMENT109,669+13.2%
