VFACTS November – SUVs And Passenger Cars Nearing Parity While Pickups Lead The Way

Australia’s new car market for November showed the gap between sales of passenger cars and SUVs is growing ever-smaller.

Mazda, which saw its Mazda3 small car finish the month in fifth on the sales ladder with 2877 sales, and its CX-5 SUV return to the top-ten in ninth on 1956, remarked that its SUV and passenger car sales are “almost at parity”.

VFACTS reveals Mazda sold 4280 SUVs last month, including the CX-5, CX-3 and CX-9, along with 4351 passenger cars (Mazda2, Mazda3, Mazda6 and MX-5). The gap between the two classes was just 71 units.

Throw in 782 sales for the 4WD Mazda BT-50 (plus 412 sales for the 2WD), and the argument could be made that SUVs edged ahead when considering customers who treat dual-cab pickups as an ‘SUV-like’ model. 

“Private buyers are increasingly using these as a weekday workhorse and a weekend recreational vehicle,” Federal Chamber for Automotive Industries (FCAI) CEO, Tony Weber, said.

“The growing sophistication of these vehicles with their passenger car comfort and equipment levels, family-sized cabins and strong towing capacity positions them as an alternative to the traditional passenger car. More entrants to this light truck market are on the way in coming years so we can only expect this segment to grow.”

Nissan Navara - 1938 (15,769)