Australia vehicles sales rebound in Dec - industry

SYDNEY, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Australia's vehicle sales
rebounded in December, industry figures showed on Tuesday,
providing a surprisingly resilient end to what has been a very
downbeat year.

The Australian Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries
said vehicle sales rose a seasonally adjusted 8.8 percent in
December, compared to the month before, to 76,510.

Sales were still down 11.3 percent on December last year,
but that was an improvement from November when sales were off
22.2 percent. It also looked positively healthy compared to the
United States were light vehicle sales were down 36 percent on
the year. For all of 2008, sales of 1.01 million vehicles were
off 3.7 percent from the all-time highs enjoyed in 2007 but
still the second highest on record.
The report gelled with anecdotal evidence of solid retail
sales in December, suggesting consumer spending picked up after
falls in October and November when the global financial crisis
was its its worst.

Big cuts in domestic interest rates, government hand-outs
and falling petrol prices may all have helped support spending
power, though analysts wonder how long that can last in the
face of a deepening global recession.

Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T) took the top sales position in
December, and for all of 2008. The Japanese auto giant held
24.8 percent of the market for December, while its share for
the year as a whole rose 1.1 percentage points to 23.6 percent.

The Holden unit of General Motors Corp (GM.N) took second
spot in December with a 14.2 percent share, while Ford Motor
Co. (F.N) came third with 9.8 percent.

For the year, Holden's share declined 1.1 percentage points
to 12.9 percent, while Ford held steady at 10.3 percent.

Details of the VFACTS report in original terms:

Dec Nov m/m pct Dec 07 y/y pct

Sales 76,510 71,617 +6.8 86,250 -11.3

Sales by Type: Dec '08/Dec '07 Volumes

Change Pct Change Passenger Vehicles
-6,026 -11.7

Sports Utility -2,692 -15.7

Light Truck -464 -3.3

Heavy Commercial -558 -16.0
(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by James Thornhill)