Car Sales Booming
Newcastle Herald
Saturday August 25, 2007
THE June long weekend storms had a devastating effect on Newcastle, but the city's motor vehicle industry came out of the disaster on top.
New car sales in the greater Newcastle area have been significantly higher than the national average since the June 8 storms, with a 21.5 per cent increase for June sales and a staggering 48.6 per cent for July.Typically, there is a lot of activity in used car sales but more people are turning to new cars, Kloster Ford general manager Wayne Sharp said.New car sales figures for June across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens, Cessnock and Maitland were 2462, up 436 from 2006 sales.The national yearly increase for that month was only 9 per cent.There were 2219 new cars bought in July, up dramatically from 1493 in 2006 The national growth was just 11 per cent."June is typically our busiest month but there was a slight delay as people waited for their storm insurance claims to come through," Mr Sharp said."July and into the start of August was when the flood gates literally opened for new car sales." The tide of flood sales has subsided, he said. However he predicts August new car sales to eclipse 2006 figures.The concern for the motor industry now is the flood-damaged cars insurance company's auctioned off."With Revs only in NSW, the other states have different systems," Mr Sharp said.The worry was where the damaged cars would turn up as it would be easy to re-register interstate. "You might buy a flood damaged car and not even know it," he said.
© 2007 Newcastle Herald