File:2013 Fiat Panda Easy- Australia's New Car Market - 3Q (January - Septmeber) 2013-.jpg

English: The Fiat Panda has finally arrived in Australia! This is the first time the Panda has been made available to the Australian market, so it'll be interesting to see how it performs. It's already received some criticism with pricing. The Panda in Australia is more expensive than both the 500 and the Punto, where in Europe, it's the other way around!

Australia's Top 30 Selling Brands Y.T.D Q3 - January - September:

1. Toyota - 158,793 2. Holden - 81,904 3. Mazda - 78,252 4. Hyundai - 72,599 5. Ford - 64,964 6. Nissan - 59,460 7. Mitsubishi - 54,603 8. Volkswagen - 40,330 9. Honda - 31,659 10. Subaru - 29,448

11. Kia - 22,744 12. Mercedes-Benz - 20,287 13. Suzuki - 16,581 14. Jeep - 15,779 15. BMW - 15,384 16. Audi - 12,024 17. Isuzu - 7,324 18. Land Rover - 6,372 19. Great Wall - 5,013 20. Lexus - 4,964

21. Renault - 4,665 22. Volvo - 3,885 23. Peugeot - 3,693 24. Fiat - 3,116 25. Skoda - 2,671 26. Chrysler - 2,096 27. MINI - 1,976 28. Alfa Romeo - 1,656 29. Opel - 1,316 30. Dodge - 1,185

Australia's new car market Total - 849,449 units - up 3% on 2012, which was also a record year.

I know it's a bit late, but I've only just found the time now to quickly put this altogether.

Now that the federal election is all over and we now have a new Prime Minister, Australia's New Car Market can finally get back to business and the last three months of 2013 should see an improvement compared to the last two months, which saw the New Car Market fall into negative territory, only slightly, but enough for people to ask if this was the end of the 'good times'.

The Top 20 Brands are pretty much set for the rest of 2013. BUT! There are at least 2 that look like being replaced, Great Wall and Lexus, with Renault, Volvo, Peugeot or Fiat!! I believe Renault will slip into the Top 20 Sellers List for the first time since the 70's and a bit of a dog fight between Lexus, Volvo, Peugeot and Fiat for the last place. Great Wall sales are sliding fast in the wrong direction, sales are down some 54% so far this year and with Renault continuing it's solid run up the charts, I'm betting that these two will swap places, leaving the others to fight it out for the last spot.

Again, good to see all of the Fiat - Chrysler Group brands making an appearance in the Top 30. Fiat sales have exploded here since all the restructuring the group has done and with the release of new models and the repositioning of the brand, things are looking pretty good for 2014.

Skoda sales have been a big disappointment for the VW Group in 2013 and look like actually going backwards. VW Australia has since come out and said that the brand will be repositioned in the market, so that they will be 'more' cheaper than the VW equivalent models. Since the release of Skoda in Australia, they have been criticised for being too close in price to the VW equivalent! They've delayed the launch of the new Octavia and the Rapid, which is now only going to be sold in Spaceback form and have decided not to bring in the Citigo small car after announcing they would.

And just to spice things up for the brand, SEAT has come out and announced that they are seriously looking at returning to the Australian market by 2015!! Not sure how this will work, but I would've thought after the mess GM did with Opel in Australia, that would've scared other brands wanting to make a return to our market.

Speaking of Opel, there are currently 700 cars that are still sitting at holding yards in Australia, that will eventually be sold through Holden dealers. It's believed Holden will most likely take the sporty OPC models - Corsa, Astra and Insignia and possibly the Zafira MPV. Opel Australia was actually only 1 week away from releasing the Zafira in Australia before they pulled the pin, so it's unclear how many Zafira's made it here before the announcement. And it's strange looking at their figures now, because they're still doing better than Citroen!

Other brands that have since come out and said they have no intentions of leaving the Australian market, despite their small sales are, SMART, Mahindra, Proton, Infiniti, Citroen, SsangYong, Chery, Geely and Foton.

Another brand that has also just re-turned to the Australian market on a national scale, is TATA. Apparently the brand has never really gone away from Australia, having being sold in the state of Queensland for years.