Huge lift in light commercial sales helps offset fall in passenger vehicles and SUVs.

Passenger vehicles sales were down 9.2% to 55,837 units for the month - 17.0% down for the first six months of the year to 262,035, a fall of 53,841 vehicles from 315,876 a year ago.

SUVs were down 4.5% for June to 20,459 units - a drop of 16.9% to 91,269 units YTD, representing a fall of 18,549 sales from 109,818 in 2008.

Heavy commercials were also down 5.0% to 3408 units - a fall of 25.4% for the first six months of the year to 13,422 units from 17,996 a year earlier.

Star performer was the light commercial sector which posted a rise of 15.5% to 23,143 for June - overall a 10.6% drop year-to-date to 86,497 from 99,005 in the first six months of 2008 - on the back of government incentives.

Source: Autofile