New-car sales nosedive

Registrations of new cars dropped by 34.8 per cent in March when compared to the same month in 2023 – from 11,603 to 7,561.

The month’s top model was Toyota’s RAV4 with 791 units, which recorded a year-on-year jump of 45.1 per cent from 545. 

Two Kia models were next up – the Stonic with 327 and Seltos, pictured, on 325. They had increases of 62.7 and 78.6 per cent respectively.

The top five was completed by Mitsubishi. Its Outlander had 316 registrations, which up by 89.2 cent. The ASX sold 308 units for a 1,611.1 per cent jump from 18 in March 2023.

Lower down the ladder, sales of Tesla’s Model 3 came in at 125, up by 8.7 per cent from 115, although the marque’s overall total was 199 – down from 875 and by 77.3 per cent.

March’s top-three marques were Toyota on 1,584 registrations – up by 0.4 per cent, Kia went down by 22.7 per cent to 968 Mitsubishi rose by 50.2 per cent on 808. 

Suzuki came fourth on 376 and Hyundai was fifth with 319, one unit ahead of Honda. GWM, in eighth, notched up a sizeable 1,032 per cent jump to 283 from 25.