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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.

A small number of vehicles sales previously unreported for the month of February 2006 have now been included in this publication as part of March 2006 data. These vehicles are included in the 'other vehicle' type and have minimal impact on the data.

MARCH 2006 KEY POINTS

Trend

The March 2006 trend estimate for total sales of new motor vehicles (80,893) decreased 0.2% compared with the February 2006 estimate. Trend estimates have been declining since March 2005.

The trend estimate for sales of passenger vehicles decreased 0.2% in March 2006 compared with February 2006. Sports utility vehicles recorded a decrease of 0.6% over the same period, while there was a 0.3% increase in the trend estimate for other vehicles.

There was little change across states and territories in the trend estimate for total sales of new motor vehicles in March 2006 compared with February 2006. The largest variations were for South Australia which decreased 1.3% and Victoria which decreased 1.0%.

Trend estimates have been in decline for a number of months, with the exception of the 'other vehicles' type. Passenger vehicles have been decreasing since June 2005 and sports utility vehicles since October 2005.

The trend estimate in total sales of new motor vehicles for Victoria has been decreasing since September 2005 and Western Australia since November 2005.

Seasonally adjusted

The March 2006 seasonally adjusted estimate for total sales of new motor vehicles (79,634) decreased 2.0% compared with the February 2006 estimate.

The states contributing most to this decrease were South Australia and Victoria, decreasing 7.1% and 5.1% respectively.

Over this period, the vehicle type with the largest decrease was passenger vehicles which decreased 3.1%. Sports utility vehicles decreased 0.9% and other vehicles increased 0.3%.

	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.(a)	NT(a)	ACT(a)	Aust.
Vehicle sales
Seasonally adjusted	24 967	19 923	17 716	4 836	8 561	1 624	776	1 231	79 634
Trend	25 333	20 697	17 595	5 067	8 583	1 604	790	1 224	80 893
Percentage change from previous month
Seasonally adjusted	-2.2	-5.1	2.3	-7.1	0.4	-1.4	-3.0	0.7	-2.0
Trend	0.6	-1.0	0.1	-1.3	-0.6	0.3	0.6	0.4	-0.2
Percentage change from previous year
Seasonally adjusted	-5.3	-5.5	1.6	-10.1	10.4	-8.9	-2.0	-10.7	-2.8
Trend	-3.5	-3.8	-3.2	-7.0	6.9	-6.6	-0.5	-3.7	-2.8

ISSUE	RELEASE DATE
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
September 2006	20 October 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
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
	March	53 188	15 896	18 072	87 156	9.7	17.7	16.9	12.5
Seasonally adjusted
2005	January	52 214	15 957	17 189	85 360	7.3	14.6	6.4	8.4
	February	52 598	16 367	16 226	85 191	0.7	2.6	-5.6	-0.2
	March	50 173	15 999	15 795	81 967	-4.6	-2.2	-2.7	-3.8
	April	51 227	15 083	16 944	83 254	2.1	-5.7	7.3	1.6
	May	50 858	14 654	16 632	82 144	-0.7	-2.8	-1.8	-1.3
	June	51 147	14 375	16 651	82 173	0.6	-1.9	0.1	0.0
	July	50 942	14 750	16 517	82 209	-0.4	2.6	-0.8	0.0
	August	51 656	14 796	17 266	83 718	1.4	0.3	4.5	1.8
	September	51 568	15 954	17 069	84 591	-0.2	7.8	-1.1	1.0
	October	48 634	14 044	16 336	79 014	-5.7	-12.0	-4.3	-6.6
	November	50 138	13 954	16 525	80 617	3.1	-0.6	1.2	2.0
	December	49 636	15 044	16 768	81 448	-1.0	7.8	1.5	1.0
2006	January	51 354	14 794	17 027	83 175	3.5	-1.7	1.5	2.1
	February	50 216	14 259	16 774	81 249	-2.2	-3.6	-1.5	-2.3
	March	48 677	14 136	16 821	79 634	-3.1	-0.9	0.3	-2.0
Trend
2005	January	51 006	15 661	16 388	83 055	0.7	0.8	0.3	0.7
	February	51 188	15 677	16 419	83 284	0.4	0.1	0.2	0.3
	March	51 233	15 534	16 448	83 215	0.1	-0.9	0.2	-0.1
	April	51 244	15 295	16 517	83 056	0.0	-1.5	0.4	-0.2
	May	51 224	15 047	16 617	82 888	-0.0	-1.6	0.6	-0.2
	June	51 167	14 833	16 719	82 719	-0.1	-1.4	0.6	-0.2
	July	51 045	14 715	16 800	82 560	-0.2	-0.8	0.5	-0.2
	August	50 871	14 709	16 823	82 403	-0.3	-0.0	0.1	-0.2
	September	50 630	14 727	16 786	82 143	-0.5	0.1	-0.2	-0.3
	October	50 377	14 707	16 749	81 833	-0.5	-0.1	-0.2	-0.4
	November	50 194	14 631	16 735	81 560	-0.4	-0.5	-0.1	-0.3
	December	50 069	14 540	16 739	81 348	-0.2	-0.6	0.0	-0.3
2006	January	49 974	14 462	16 766	81 202	-0.2	-0.5	0.2	-0.2
	February	49 850	14 392	16 798	81 040	-0.2	-0.5	0.2	-0.2
	March	49 742	14 299	16 852	80 893	-0.2	-0.6	0.3	-0.2

		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.(a)	NT(a)	ACT(a)	Aust.
		(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)	(No.)
Original
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
	March	27 165	21 461	19 833	5 195	9 750	1 540	913	1 299	87 156
Seasonally adjusted
2005	January	27 167	22 483	17 957	5 579	8 286	1 845	752	1 291	85 360
	February	27 022	21 658	18 785	5 625	8 207	1 713	855	1 326	85 191
	March	26 353	21 089	17 433	5 381	7 758	1 782	792	1 379	81 967
	April	26 026	21 375	18 573	5 456	8 284	1 595	785	1 160	83 254
	May	25 296	21 514	18 142	5 422	8 103	1 662	785	1 220	82 144
	June	25 028	21 392	18 645	5 241	8 007	1 804	858	1 198	82 173
	July	25 357	21 344	18 151	5 192	8 442	1 614	816	1 293	82 209
	August	25 971	21 797	18 239	5 247	8 727	1 627	806	1 304	83 718
	September	26 057	21 695	18 349	5 305	9 014	2 019	839	1 313	84 591
	October	23 508	20 701	17 437	5 242	8 602	1 607	732	1 185	79 014
	November	24 469	21 344	17 243	5 314	8 865	1 464	714	1 204	80 617
	December	24 808	21 681	17 448	5 247	8 716	1 583	774	1 191	81 448
2006	January	25 808	21 466	18 123	5 296	8 792	1 617	819	1 254	83 175
	February	25 538	20 993	17 317	5 206	8 525	1 647	800	1 223	81 249
	March	24 967	19 923	17 716	4 836	8 561	1 624	776	1 231	79 634
Trend
2005	January	26 427	21 620	17 797	5 420	7 997	1 742	765	1 287	83 055
	February	26 441	21 583	18 008	5 442	8 012	1 734	779	1 285	83 284
	March	26 265	21 511	18 176	5 449	8 031	1 718	794	1 271	83 215
	April	26 025	21 457	18 300	5 427	8 078	1 702	809	1 258	83 056
	May	25 779	21 444	18 371	5 374	8 157	1 694	819	1 250	82 888
	June	25 553	21 442	18 372	5 308	8 281	1 692	821	1 250	82 719
	July	25 360	21 445	18 291	5 263	8 440	1 691	816	1 254	82 560
	August	25 195	21 457	18 147	5 250	8 610	1 681	803	1 260	82 403
	September	25 035	21 455	17 951	5 262	8 739	1 655	789	1 257	82 143
	October	24 920	21 434	17 755	5 277	8 800	1 628	775	1 244	81 833
	November	24 876	21 379	17 630	5 280	8 795	1 604	769	1 227	81 560
	December	24 927	21 269	17 573	5 251	8 745	1 594	771	1 218	81 348
2006	January	25 056	21 107	17 562	5 200	8 690	1 594	777	1 216	81 202
	February	25 193	20 900	17 571	5 136	8 636	1 600	785	1 219	81 040
	March	25 333	20 697	17 595	5 067	8 583	1 604	790	1 224	80 893
(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.