Car News

With car sales falling 19 months in succession and 2019 year-to-date (YTD) figures showing a market-wide drop of 8.0 per cent, there is no shortage of losers out there - the top 5 of which are all small cars. To be specific, the YTD tally of 893,920 new cars, SUVs and commercials is 77,803 units short of the cumulative 2018 tally.

Chinese-owned British brand, MG, has continued its triple-digit growth throughout this year, and following the latest round of VFACTS figures, the company looks set to finish 2019 with triple the sales volume in Australia compared to last year. In September a total of 835 MGs were registered across the country, with the year-to-date (YTD) figure sitting at 5795 units as of September 30. Compared to 2018, that's a 118 per cent monthly increase and 203.8 per cent up YTD.

Lexus Australia has broken several internal sales records this past month, with its overall tally for August a up by almost a third on the same month last year. With a total of 817 vehicles registered across its line-up, the Japanese brand's year-to-date count stood at 6373 units as of August 31, a 5.2 per cent improvement on the first eight months of 2018.

BMW Australia is "quietly confident" its sales will grow during the second half of 2019, as its SUV range expands and consumer confidence returns after the federal election. The company's sales have been relatively stable throughout 2019, with deliveries down 4.0 per cent year-to-date at the end of June. That's despite an overall market slide of 8.4 per cent compared to 2018, and respective drops of 13.2 and 32.2 per cent for rivals Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

Car dealers are reporting a sales recovery since last month's Federal Election, but Australian new car registrations continued to decline in May, the 14th consecutive month of sales slowdown. VFACTS data for May 2019 recorded 92,561 new vehicle registrations, down 8.1% from the 100,754 achieved in May 2018. That perfectly matches the state of the market in 2019: year-to-date sales are down 8.1% compared to the same point in 2018.