FCAI figures show new car sales figures slow in March Mark Skaife offers driving tips to the stars on day two of practice at Sandown ahead of the Mazda6 Celebrity Challenge Sales of the Mazda CX-5 have helped the manufacturer to top car sales in Australia in March. AUSTRALIA'S booming new-car market has slowed for the first time in 14 months, official figures released today have confirmed. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries has released March figures that show a dip in sales of 0.2 per cent, as analysts report that buyers have overindulged on low interest rate offers. Toyota maintained its clear lead in the new-car sales race, with imported brand Mazda in second for the third month in a row. But the big news was the fight for third place between Hyundai and Nissan, with Australian stalwart Holden the casualty, pushed to fifth place for the first time ever. Holden paid double Toyota and Ford to build cars When the car industry gathered to share sales numbers on the first working day of this month, the March figures showed Hyundai had grabbed third place for the first time ever. But, miraculously, when the official data was released two days later, Nissan's tally increased by 81 sales - to edge it ahead of Hyundai by just four deliveries. The preliminary data is used solely as an early guide and car makers are entitled to make adjustments as late deals come in, or fall over. However, Nissan's sudden jump of 81 sales between the preliminary data and the official data for March 2013 is abnormally high. The last time Nissan made a similar leap (by 83 sales) was in May 2012, when it also happened to overtake Hyundai - by 80 deliveries. In months when Nissan has not been close to overtaking another competitor, or when it has had a clear lead, its final monthly sales numbers have typically varied by between just 2 and 16 deliveries from the preliminary figures. Artist's Impression Other manufacturers" final figures are most often identical to their preliminary numbers, or vary by just two or three deliveries. "We did not register any additional cars," says Nissan Australia spokesman Peter Fadeyev, when asked why Nissan had suddenly found an additional 81 sales to report. We simply sold six more cars than Hyundai, it's purely a coincidence. Hyundai Australia spokesman Bill Thomas declined to comment. Meanwhile, confidential "dealer demonstrator" figures obtained by News Limited reveal just how hard some car makers are pushing new metal in a desperate grab for sales. Dealer demonstrator cars are usually discounted by the factory so potential buyers can use them for test drives. But in recent years it has become a creative way to disguise discounting, with many brands offering "dealer demonstrator" cars that have not even been registered. On average, dealer demonstrator cars now account for about 10 per cent of all new-car sales reported, but in the first two months of this year they accounted for 16 per cent of Nissan's sales tally. Nissan's penetration of dealer demonstrators is also higher than its nearest rivals Toyota (6 per cent), Mazda (8 per cent) and Hyundai (11 per cent) for the same period. Meanwhile the Mazda3 was again the top-selling car in March, for the fourth month in a row, while locally-made cars struggled to stay inside the top-10 as imports dominated, buoyed by the strong Australian dollar. The locally-made Toyota Camry beat the Holden Commodore for the fifth month ever, after three wins in a row from October to December 2012 and its maiden victory in January 1995. Holden says its sales are down by a staggering 18.8 per cent (more than any other brand inside the top 10) because it is still experiencing problems with a new computer ordering system which has sent some cars to the wrong dealers. Furthermore, its hero car the Commodore is in runout ahead of a new model arriving in June. "We are still working through those issues but hope to be on top of them in the next month or so," said Holden spokesman Matt Hobbs. The top selling brands in March 2013 Toyota 18,653 (up 1.0 per cent) Mazda 9112 (down 2.5 per cent) Nissan 8408 (up 1.2 per cent) Hyundai 8402 (up 7.6 per cent) Holden 8283 (down 18.8 per cent) Ford 6434 (down 13.7 per cent) Mitsubishi 5147 (down 14.3 per cent) Volkswagen 4299 (down 4.1 per cent) Subaru 4219 (up 5.4 per cent) Honda 3897 (up 73.4 per cent) The top selling cars in March 2013 Mazda3 3786 Toyota Corolla 3512 Toyota HiLux 3127 Hyundai i30 2595 Nissan Navara 2499 Mitsubishi Triton 1992 Toyota Camry 1916 Ford Ranger 1685 Nissan Pulsar 1644 Holden Commodore 1606 Source: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling