Sales in the Australian motorcycle market are on the up in the first three quarters of 2016, with quads and side by sides leading the way.
The strongest growth area was the quad and SSV (side by side vehicles) segment, which saw a nine per cent growth over the same period of 2015, with 15,943 of the four-wheeled vehicles sold this year so far.
Honda leads the sales race in this key segment that is dominated by agricultural sales.
Honda maintained a slim sales margin, selling 4164 or 26.1pc per cent of the market, with Polaris hot on its heels with 25.1pc, Yamaha 20.2pc and BRP 12.3pc.
Sales in the overall motorcycle market were up 5.5 per cent over the same nine month period in 2015 to a total of 79,237 units.
Chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Tony Weber, said it was one of the best three-quarter year sales outcome for the industry for several years.
“It’s terrific to see the motorcycle industry so vibrant and busy, and we are looking forward to considerable sales activity as we lead into summer months,” he said.
The off-road motorcycle market is also a strong growth area up 5.0 per cent over the first three quarters of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015, while the road bike market powered ahead by 6.4 per cent.
Scooters are out of favour with sales falling 11.9pc so far this year.
Overall, for the January-September period, Honda leads sales across all segments with 21.6pc of the market.
It is closely followed by Yamaha with a 21.4pc share and Kawasaki third-ranked with a 9.4pc market share leaving Suzuki last of the key Japanese manufacturers.
Everybody’s dream - or mid-life crisis machine, Harley-Davidson collared 9.1pc of the total market and it leads the road bike sales segment with over 20pc of 34,778 road bike sales.
Road bikes account for over 43pc of all new bike sales and off-road bikes a touch over 31pc.
Quads and SSVs clock up a healthy 20.1pc of the total bike market – a result that may trend upwards with rebates on the machines available in the ag-sector in Victoria and NSW.
Yamaha dominates off-road sales with 30.4pc of the 25,288 sold nationally followed by Honda (22pc) and KTM (19.6pc).
