CANBERRA: Car sales dropped in 2014, with Hyundai and Subaru the only top-10 brands to rise.Some 1.1 million new vehicles were sold nation-wide during the year, down 15 per cent from the 1.3 million sold in 2013, motoring industry figures show.
But it’s still the second-biggest year on record and just the third time sales have passed 1.1 million.Passenger cars remained most popular, accounting for about 48 per cent of sales, though the popularity of SUVs continued to rise, reaching a market share just shy of 32 per cent.Toyota was the top-selling car maker for the 12th consecutive year with 203,500 sales, down 5.2 per cent on 2013, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said.
Fourth-placed Hyundai and eighth-placed Subaru were the only top-10 brands to boost sales, rising 3.1 and 0.8 per cent, respectively.
Holden sales fell 5.3 per cent to 106,000, while Ford’s were down 8.6 per cent to about 80,000.Nissan and Honda performed particularly poorly, with sales falling 14 and 15.9 per cent, respectively.The Toyota Corolla was the top-selling vehicle with 43,735 sales, followed by the Mazda 3 with 43,313.The results cap off a year to forget for the local car industry.In February, Toyota announced it would follow Holden and Ford and stop making cars in Australia by the end of 2017.
