Isuzu help keeps recovering market moving in the right way.
Commercial vehicle sales for October appear to show a slow month-on-month resurgence continuing, despite total sales being a bit below last year on a year-to-date basis.
At 2,884 vehicles, this has been the best October so far this decade, Truck Industry Council (TIC) statistics show.
But total year-to-date sales are at 25,195, just below last year’s 25,437 though above 2012’s 24,978 and 2011’s 22,859.
Among the movers, market leader Isuzu led the monthly surge with nearly 200 units more sold than in September at 822.
Volvo also had its best October since 2011 (145 sales), with 152 units sold.
Most other makes were subject to month-on-month or bi-monthly volatility.
One of those was Mercedes-Benz Vans, which was unable to hold its rate of 201 scored last month, sinking to 182.
This was below last October’s 191 but, year-to-date, the German maker is up significantly on last year at 1,795 compared with 1,523, which is also its best level at this stage in five years.
Heavy vehicles showed a pleasing upward trend to 948 from 910 and 838 respectively in September and August, with Volvo, as noted, and Isuzu doing the heavy lifting.
The Japanese maker has ploughed ahead in the heavy market this decade having lifted sales by about a third in that time and cementing itself in third position at 930 for the year so far.
Isuzu was also to the fore in medium-duty sales with a near 50 per cent jump from 233 in each of the previous two months to 307, and in the light-duty segment, where it had been averaging around 300 a month before rising to 387.