Small cars rise with petrol prices
Australia's small-car market is up 2.9 per cent this year while the total market fell 2.8 per cent.
Australia's small-car market is up 2.9 per cent this year while the total market fell 2.8 per cent.
Compact SUVs are also in demand - up 3.8 per cent - as families seek smaller, more spacious wagons.
More are coming. Subaru Australia boss predicts that his company's new XV SUV wagon will become one of its biggest sellers when launched in January.
Part of the reason, he says, is continuing interest in economical family wagons.
Trends in SUV buying are seen as closely relating the price of petrol at the bowsers. When fuel prices rise, buyers back off. Conversely, low fuel prices seem to inspire people to buy.
And that's the way it is likely to stay because unlike Europeans, we're not all ready for hybrids, diesels and electric cars.
While hybrid car sales are on the rise, they account for a tiny 0.72 per cent of the passenger car market.
Diesel cars are only 6.4 per cent of the total market but when it comes to SUVs - which demand greater fuel economy - they have a 9.8 per cent share of the SUV market.
LPG car sales are down but that's only because Ford - the only carmaker currently producing a gas-only passenger car - is in between models.
Its latest Falcon EcoLPi range, launched in August, is available in seven passenger car and ute versions.
Motorists pay about 65c/litre for LPG - less than half the price of petrol - but gas cars consume about 25 to 50 per cent more fuel per kilometre than a petrol equivalent.
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