New car sales in Australia are down for the sixth consecutive month. The real numbers are worse.

News AU reports New-Car Sales Hit the Brakes for the Sixth Month in September.

Here’s the punchline: Dealers report the downturn is sharper than what the reported sales figures show.

Official figures show new-car sales hit the brakes for the sixth month in a row in September.

The slowdown means dealers are overstocked as they head into the quietest months on the calendar and trying to clear end-of-year models.

September’s downturn of 5.5 per cent over the same month last year — to 94,711 reported sales — doesn’t tell the full story. Dealers claim the figures are inflated and the real position is much worse.

One major metropolitan dealer says “there was a mad scramble” in the last days of the month to report cars as sold. Industry insiders say anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent of vehicles in a given month are “cyber cars”, a term given to vehicles counted as sold on a computer but not in the real world.

Congratulations to Australia

It appears they can lie at least as good down under as we do in the US.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock