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The Publication

This publication presents monthly information on sales of new motor vehicles in each state/territory in original, seasonally adjusted and trend estimated terms. The original data are sourced from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. Sales data are available for passenger vehicles, sports utility vehicles (SUVs), other vehicles and total vehicles at the state/territory and national levels.

FEBRUARY 2006 KEY POINTS

Trend

The February 2006 trend estimate for total sales of new motor vehicles (81,640) increased 0.1% compared with the January 2006 estimate. This is only the second month since February 2005 that the trend estimate has increased.

The trend estimate of sales of passenger vehicles increased 0.2% in February 2006 compared with January 2006. Sports utility vehicles recorded a decrease of 0.3% over the same period, while there was no change in the trend estimate for other vehicles.

When comparing February 2006 to February 2005, sales of passenger vehicles decreased 1.6% and sports utility vehicles decreased 7.6%, while sales of other vehicles showed an increase of 2.3%.

The monthly percentage change for sports utility vehicles has remained negative since October 2005.

Northern Territory (1.0%) and New South Wales (0.7%) were the only states or territories to record an increase in the trend estimate for total sales of new motor vehicles in February 2006 compared with January 2006.

When compared with February 2005, most states and territories recorded decreases in the trend estimate for sales of new motor vehicles, with the largest decreases being Tasmania (8.2%), Australian Capital Territory (5.5%) and New South Wales (4.3%). Western Australia showed an increase of 8.4%.

The monthly percentage change in the Australian trend estimate stayed positive for the second month in succession, with February 2006 increasing 0.1% after January's increase of 0.1%.

All states and territories displayed little change in their monthly percentage changes in trend estimates from January 2006 to February 2006, unlike the larger swings experienced during 2005.

Seasonally adjusted

The February 2006 seasonally adjusted estimate for total sales of new motor vehicles (81,545) decreased 2.1% compared with the January 2006 estimate.

The states having the largest decreases over this period were Queensland (4.6%) and Western Australia (3.4%). The largest vehicle type decrease was for sports utility vehicles (3.8%).

	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.(a)	NT(a)	ACT(a)	Aust.
Vehicle sales
Seasonally adjusted	25,722	21,133	17,257	5,246	8,521	1,645	799	1,222	81,545
Trend	25,293	21,370	17,447	5,276	8,670	1,587	787	1,210	81,640
Percentage change from previous month
Seasonally adjusted	-0.2	-2.1	-4.6	-1.3	-3.4	1.9	-2.6	-2.5	-2.1
Trend	0.7	-0.1	-0.2	-0.1	-0.6	-0.1	1.0	-0.2	0.1
Percentage change from previous year
Seasonally adjusted	-5.4	-3.0	-7.8	-7.4	3.9	-3.9	-6.5	-7.8	-4.6
Trend	-4.3	-1.1	-3.1	-3.1	8.4	-8.2	1.3	-5.5	-2.0

ISSUE	RELEASE DATE
March 2006	24 April 2006
April 2006	22 May 2006
May 2006	22 June 2006
June 2006	21 July 2006
July 2006	22 August 2006
August 2006	21 September 2006

Table 1: New motor vehicle sales by type of vehicle

		Passenger vehicles (No.)	Sports utility vehicles (No.)	Other vehicles (No.)	Total vehicles (No.)	Change passenger vehicles (%)	Change sports utility vehicles (%)	Change other vehicles (%)	Change total vehicles (%)
Original
2004	December	48,673	14,311	15,996	78,980	-8.0	-6.2	-1.2	-6.3
2005	January	43,075	13,877	12,761	69,713	-11.5	-3.0	-20.2	-11.7
	February	50,640	15,526	14,975	81,141	17.6	11.9	17.3	16.4
	March	53,282	17,454	15,902	86,638	5.2	12.4	6.2	6.8
	April	46,651	13,812	16,024	76,487	-12.4	-20.9	0.8	-11.7
	May	50,463	15,430	18,061	83,954	8.2	11.7	12.7	9.8
	June	60,781	18,317	23,047	102,145	20.4	18.7	27.6	21.7
	July	49,016	13,822	15,803	78,641	-19.4	-24.5	-31.4	-23.0
	August	53,648	15,173	17,356	86,177	9.4	9.8	9.8	9.6
	September	52,118	15,080	17,242	84,440	-2.9	-0.6	-0.7	-2.0
	October	48,434	12,503	15,181	76,118	-7.1	-17.1	-12.0	-9.9
	November	52,751	14,252	16,535	83,538	8.9	14.0	8.9	9.7
	December	47,945	15,046	16,286	79,277	-9.1	5.6	-1.5	-5.1
2006	January	43,761	13,251	12,991	70,003	-8.7	-11.9	-20.2	-11.7
	February	48,483	13,506	15,457	77,446	10.8	1.9	19.0	10.6
Seasonally adjusted
2004	December	48,533	13,959	16,171	78,663	-3.7	-7.6	2.3	-3.2
2005	January	52,236	15,973	17,212	85,421	7.6	14.4	6.4	8.6
	February	52,852	16,362	16,240	85,454	1.2	2.4	-5.6	0.0
	March	50,009	15,896	15,728	81,633	-5.4	-2.8	-3.2	-4.5
	April	51,152	15,095	16,929	83,176	2.3	-5.0	7.6	1.9
	May	50,841	14,673	16,652	82,166	-0.6	-2.8	-1.6	-1.2
	June	51,075	14,359	16,655	82,089	0.5	-2.1	0.0	-0.1
	July	50,941	14,765	16,525	82,231	-0.3	2.8	-0.8	0.2
	August	51,653	14,804	17,264	83,721	1.4	0.3	4.5	1.8
	September	51,569	15,949	17,064	84,582	-0.2	7.7	-1.2	1.0
	October	48,704	14,079	16,343	79,126	-5.6	-11.7	-4.2	-6.5
	November	50,169	13,970	16,562	80,701	3.0	-0.8	1.3	2.0
	December	49,623	15,067	16,784	81,474	-1.1	7.9	1.3	1.0
2006	January	51,391	14,823	17,059	83,273	3.6	-1.6	1.6	2.2
	February	50,492	14,253	16,800	81,545	-1.7	-3.8	-1.5	-2.1
Trend
2004	December	50,657	15,543	16,355	82,555	1.0	1.2	0.4	0.9
2005	January	51,027	15,660	16,389	83,076	0.7	0.8	0.2	0.6
	February	51,195	15,663	16,414	83,272	0.3	0.0	0.2	0.2
	March	51,221	15,514	16,438	83,173	0.1	-1.0	0.1	-0.1
	April	51,214	15,278	16,507	82,999	-0.0	-1.5	0.4	-0.2
	May	51,180	15,035	16,610	82,825	-0.1	-1.6	0.6	-0.2
	June	51,125	14,830	16,716	82,671	-0.1	-1.4	0.6	-0.2
	July	51,017	14,720	16,801	82,538	-0.2	-0.7	0.5	-0.2
	August	50,864	14,718	16,830	82,412	-0.3	-0.0	0.2	-0.2
	September	50,610	14,736	16,794	82,140	-0.5	0.1	-0.2	-0.3
	October	50,350	14,711	16,761	81,822	-0.5	-0.2	-0.2	-0.4
	November	50,208	14,644	16,753	81,605	-0.3	-0.5	-0.0	-0.3
	December	50,194	14,575	16,761	81,530	-0.0	-0.5	0.0	-0.1
2006	January	50,273	14,524	16,787	81,584	0.2	-0.3	0.2	0.1
	February	50,367	14,478	16,795	81,640	0.2	-0.3	0.0	0.1

		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.(a)	NT(a)	ACT(a)	Aust.
		(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)
Original
2004	December	24,315	21,700	16,537	4,998	7,341	2,245	647	1,197	78,980
2005	January	22,494	18,063	14,574	4,475	6,950	1,479	560	1,118	69,713
	February	25,772	20,642	17,868	5,494	7,894	1,432	777	1,262	81,141
	March	27,528	22,031	19,171	5,471	8,633	1,574	889	1,341	86,638
	April	24,354	19,557	16,831	5,048	7,339	1,375	859	1,124	76,487
	May	26,248	21,964	18,285	5,549	8,080	1,641	913	1,274	83,954
	June	30,745	25,493	24,656	6,586	10,013	2,052	1,185	1,415	102,145
	July	24,998	20,025	17,631	4,813	7,727	1,438	767	1,242	78,641
	August	26,292	22,550	19,330	5,458	8,714	1,689	751	1,393	86,177
	September	25,457	22,044	18,344	5,243	9,125	2,151	793	1,283	84,440
	October	22,949	20,289	16,026	5,030	8,349	1,655	659	1,161	76,118
	November	25,716	22,428	17,181	5,500	9,107	1,667	690	1,249	83,538
	December	23,054	22,110	16,208	5,335	8,664	2,080	690	1,136	79,277
2006	January	21,995	17,876	15,107	4,380	7,604	1,295	616	1,130	70,003
	February	24,495	19,979	16,452	5,085	8,165	1,373	731	1,166	77,446
Seasonally adjusted
2004	December	25,025	20,848	17,233	4,774	7,195	1,673	701	1,214	78,663
2005	January	27,155	22,628	17,913	5,585	8,250	1,846	752	1,292	85,421
	February	27,199	21,782	18,716	5,663	8,202	1,712	855	1,325	85,454
	March	26,231	20,939	17,464	5,345	7,754	1,762	787	1,351	81,633
	April	26,051	21,286	18,592	5,448	8,260	1,592	783	1,164	83,176
	May	25,318	21,503	18,134	5,423	8,124	1,658	786	1,220	82,166
	June	24,986	21,372	18,656	5,225	7,989	1,805	859	1,197	82,089
	July	25,376	21,303	18,168	5,193	8,456	1,618	817	1,300	82,231
	August	25,971	21,785	18,244	5,252	8,725	1,630	806	1,308	83,721
	September	26,027	21,687	18,361	5,306	9,021	2,021	841	1,318	84,582
	October	23,559	20,764	17,414	5,245	8,610	1,613	732	1,189	79,126
	November	24,514	21,337	17,266	5,319	8,875	1,467	716	1,207	80,701
	December	24,759	21,728	17,462	5,249	8,724	1,584	776	1,192	81,474
2006	January	25,773	21,596	18,084	5,316	8,817	1,614	820	1,253	83,273
	February	25,722	21,133	17,257	5,246	8,521	1,645	799	1,222	81,545
Trend
2004	December	26,208	21,609	17,577	5,405	7,983	1,745	756	1,272	82,555
2005	January	26,421	21,666	17,786	5,425	7,988	1,741	764	1,285	83,076
	February	26,441	21,606	17,996	5,443	8,000	1,729	777	1,280	83,272
	March	26,269	21,502	18,167	5,445	8,020	1,712	793	1,265	83,173
	April	26,028	21,422	18,300	5,420	8,071	1,697	808	1,253	82,999
	May	25,777	21,394	18,377	5,367	8,154	1,690	818	1,248	82,825
	June	25,548	21,395	18,383	5,301	8,281	1,691	821	1,251	82,671
	July	25,356	21,414	18,302	5,258	8,442	1,693	816	1,257	82,538
	August	25,196	21,443	18,155	5,250	8,615	1,685	805	1,263	82,412
	September	25,040	21,429	17,962	5,257	8,739	1,662	790	1,261	82,140
	October	24,922	21,407	17,772	5,269	8,798	1,631	776	1,247	81,822
	November	24,885	21,399	17,634	5,280	8,800	1,607	769	1,231	81,605
	December	24,958	21,396	17,542	5,284	8,768	1,593	771	1,218	81,530
2006	January	25,114	21,394	17,490	5,282	8,724	1,589	779	1,212	81,584
	February	25,293	21,370	17,447	5,276	8,670	1,587	787	1,210	81,640
(a) Seasonally adjusted numbers of new motor vehicle sales in Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory should be used with caution. For further information, see paragraph 7 of the Explanatory Notes.