Numbers of imports down for the month

Vehicle imports were down across the board compared to August 2016, apart from used light commercial vehicles, that were down on last month. There were 12,455 used cars imported last month, down 14.1 per cent on July and 11.4 per cent on August last year. Imported passenger vehicles from Japan were 13.6 per cent lower than the same month last year reducing their monthly market share to 91.9 per cent. The UK, Australia and Singapore continued their popularity as a source market with increases of 102.1, 20.9 and 13.6 per cent respectively. Australia has increased its monthly share of the overall used cars imported to 4.3 per cent. Year to date imports of used cars are up 13,019 units or 13 per cent compared to the first eight months of 2016, with 116,113 crossing the border so far in 2017. New car imports were down 15.8 per cent on last month at 10,599 units. Japanese new car imports fell sharply to 3,434 units from July’s 5,597, down about 39 per cent. Despite the general drop in new imports, new cars from Germany jumped up 76 per cent to 1,318 units, compared to last month’s 745 units. New light commercials were also down 11 per cent to 2,754 units, from last month’s 3,108 units.