Vehicle registrations up for April

Vehicle registrations for April were up six percent on last year, according to figures from the Land Transport Safety Authority. There were 21,317 first-time registrations of new and used imported vehicles this April, compared with 20,085 in April 2002 - an increase of 6.1 percent.

Total first-time car registrations were up 5.4 percent, from 15,777 in April 2002 to 16,630 last month. While new car registrations fell by 5.5 percent, from 4,735 to 4,475, used import registrations rose 10.1 percent from 11,042 to 12,155.

The market share leader for new car registrations last month was Ford with 16.7 percent, ahead of Holden with 14.5 percent and Toyota with 13.1 percent. The three most popular new car models for the month were the Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon and Mazda 6.

Truck registrations were up 0.9 percent, from 2,132 in April 2002 to 2,151 this year. Trailer registrations were up 8.6 percent, from 1,379 to 1,497 while motorcycle registrations (over 60cc) jumped 39.4 percent, from 292 to 407. Tractor registrations rose 14.4 percent, from 153 to 175, while bus registrations rose 14.5 percent, from 69 to 79.