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March was Chinese brand Chery's first month on sale, with the brand retailing 53 units of the $11,990 drive-away J1 hatchback and 166 of the J11 2WD SUVs nationally. Ateco Automotive - importers of Chery and Great Wall - spokesman Daniel Cotterill said the Chinese brand was building up its network and expected volumes to grow as the dealerships - currently numbering 45 across the country - were established.
"We're in the early stages of setting up the dealer network, those that were set up and had stock sold to our expectations," he said. Mr Cotterill said the Great Wall brand had taken 18 months to sell its first 10,000 cars in Australia but expected the second 10,000 would be sold during the 2011 calendar year.
The Great Wall brand - which only currently sells light commercials and SUVs - sold 537 units last month, taking its YTD total to 1654. Proposed interest rate hikes, higher petrol prices and fewer fleet sales may impact on new vehicle sales but market leader Toyota said the absence of buyer incentives had let the market return to its natural level, according to Toyota's senior executive director sales and marketing, David Buttner.
"In 2010 the industry enjoyed a record March as a result of the improving economy and the final influence of government incentive," he said.
The Adelaide-built Holden Commodore remained the nation's most popular car and sales and marketing executive director John Elsworth said Commodore and Cruze sales figures set the tone for a positive year ahead.
"In the small car segment, not only has Cruze had its second best month since launch, sales are up 32 per cent on March last year," he said.
Industry sales figures released yesterday by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries for the first quarter of 2011 show the new vehicle market at 248,464 - down by 3363 sales on the 2010 tallies to the same point. Light cars and compact SUVs were the only segments to remain ahead of last year's year-to-date (YTD) totals, with only the compact and luxury SUV sales segments showing positive signs in month and YTD sales over last year's numbers.
SUV sales grew in March and overall for the year so far - almost 2400 units up the first quarter of 2010 - thanks to an increase in private buyers. Light commercial sales remained buoyant, up just over nine per cent for March - a 1547 vehicle increase - and 2.2 per cent ahead for the year so far.
FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said the demand for new vehicles is "broadly consistent" with other economic indicators. "The reality is the overall level of new vehicle sales remains robust and remains well above 1 million units over the past 12 months," he said.
Stephen Scheffler, 58, from Victor Harbor, covers between 35 and 50,000km a year as a HR training consultant and researched the Chery brand before buying a J11 SUV.
"I've only had it a week and I'm extremely pleased with the car, I do a reasonable amount of driving and I was looking for something that looked like a 4Wd but wasn't so it was a bit cheaper to run," he said.
TOP 10 MARCH (YTD)
Toyota 18,466 (47,887 -7.3%))
Holden 10,816 (29,515 -11.8%)
Mazda 8039 (22,883 8.4%)
Ford 8698 (22,713 3.4%)
Hyundai 7126 (20,143 -5.0%)
Nissan 7789 (18,258 19.3%)
Mitsubishi 5656 (15,311 4.7%)
Subaru 3901 (10,731 5.0%)
Volkswagen 3228 (8758 4.6%)
Honda 2634 (7446 -27.4%)
TOP 20 VEHICLES MARCH (YTD)
Holden Commodore 4170 (10,644)
Toyota Hilux 4028 (9411)
Mazda3 3979 (11,159)
Toyota Corolla 3067 (9712)
Holden Cruze 2804 (7446)
Nissan Navara 2575 (6586)
Hyundai i30 2376 (6705)
Mitsubishi Triton 1978 (4496)
Mitsubishi Lancer 1749 (4980)
Ford Falcon 1719 (4448)
Toyota Camry 1639 (4229)
Toyota Prado 1628 (3831)
Ford Ranger 1603 (3841)
Mazda2 1544 (4475)
Ford Fiesta 1477 (3764)
Hyundai Getz 1463 (5086)
Toyota Yaris 1461 (4629)
Toyota Kluger 1370 (3182)
Toyota RAV4 1318 (3345)
Subaru Forester 1227 (3353)
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