New car sales increase

There were 8,588 new passenger vehicles registered in September, which was up 5.8 per cent from 8,118 units in the same month of last year.

The new-vehicle market has had 61,753 registrations over the first nine months of the year, which is down 23.1 per cent from the same period of 2023 when it tallied 80,311.

Toyota’s RAV4 was the top model on 1,172 units, compared with 682 in the same month a year ago, and accounted for 13.6 per cent of the market.

It is also the leading model for the year-to-date after selling 6,306 units and grabbing a 10.2 per cent share of activity.

Toyota’s Yaris Cross was the second most popular model last month on 384 registrations and a 4.5 per cent market share and its Mitsubishi ASX was third on 379 and 4.4 per cent.

Kia’s Seltos and the Mitsubishi Outlander were next on 370 and 362 units respectively.

The ASX is second on the year-to-date chart with 2,656 units, followed by the Outlander on 2,525, the Seltos with 2,371 and Suzuki’s Swift on 2,123.

Toyota topped the marques’ ladder in September with 2,238 registrations – up 19 per cent from 1,880 in the same month a year ago – and took out 26.1 per cent of market activity. 

It was followed by Mitsubishi on 1,112 units and a 12.9 per cent market share, and Kia with 814 and 9.5 per cent. Ford and Suzuki completed the top five with 604 and 359 units respectively.

Toyota is the leading marque year to date with 13,028 units and a 21.1 per cent market share.

Mitsubishi is second with 6,991 registrations and 11.3 per cent, followed by Kia on 6,457 and 10.5 per cent.

Suzuki has had 4,040 sales and 6.5 per cent of the market year-to-date and Ford 2,976 and 4.8 per cent.