Sales of passenger cars, SUV and commercial vehicles across Australia hit a new April record of 87,571 – 2.9 per cent above the previous best for that month set three years ago – in another demonstration of the motor industry’s price-competitiveness.

SUVs (up 7.1 per cent or 2,119 on April 2015) and light commercials were again the star performers, although a strong push occurred in passenger cars (up 4.7 per cent or 1,656 sales), with intense competition in the small and medium segments.

The 87,571 vehicles sales during April were 7.2 per cent or 5,915 higher than posted in the same month last year.

In April 2016 big gains were recorded in medium SUV, sports, people mover and the upper large SUV segments, while the small passenger (up 6.9 per cent) and medium passenger (up 6.8 per cent) were both busy parts of the market, at the expense of large cars (down 6.2 per cent) and upper large (down 23.2 per cent).

Business purchases of motor vehicles in April 2016 were strong across the board, with passenger vehicles up 15.6 per cent, SUVs up 15.2 per cent and light commercials up 32.6 per cent compared with April 2015.

Toyota remained overall market leader for the month with an 18.9 per cent share, with Hyundai second (9.9 per cent), followed by Mazda (9.7 per cent), Ford (7.8) and Holden (7.7).

The Hyundai i30 was the nation’s best-selling vehicle (4,143 sales during April) with two light commercial vehicles – the Toyota Hilux (3,384) and the Ford Ranger (2,973) – finishing second and third respectively, followed by the Toyota Corolla (2,959) and Mazda3 (2,512).

All states and territories, aside from Western Australia, lifted sales volume during April compared with the same month last year. The ACT showed the largest increase with a 15.6 per cent sales boost, followed closely by big volumes across NSW (up 11.9 per cent), Victoria (up 8.1 per cent) and South Australia (up 6.8).