Local carmakers are bearing the brunt of the continued onslaught of imported vehicles that flood the domestic market, according to the latest statistics released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) on Monday.

As of the month of August, more than 80 percent of the local market has been gobbled by car producers from the United States, Europe and Asia, with Korean and Japanese carmakers heading the pack of the 73,891 imported vehicles that hit Australian roads in the period.

According to FCAI, of the 88,082 units sold in the previous month, only 14,191 vehicles were assembled by local manufacturers, with Holden, Ford and Toyota (the latter still a Japanese subsidiary) selling 7853, 3883 and 2455 units respectively.

Most of the three companies' car roll outs are focused on their flagship and entry-level units such Holden's Commodore and Cruze models, Ford's Falcon and Territory and Toyota's Camry and Aurion, the FCAI report said.

The new car sales figures, however, also marked the troubling slides of local car sales as all three major car companies saw their August numbers dipping by the thousand, with the exception of Holden, which has reported considerable success with its Cruze series, a domestic adoption of the same car model popularized by U.S.-based General Motors in Northern America.

On the other hand, Japanese carmaker Mazda saw its sales figures jumping by 41 percent in the past 12 months leading to August as it shipped out 9138 units, including 4234 units of the new bestseller Mazda, which FCAI toppled Holden's Commodore as Australia's number one car in the month.

Not too far was South Korea's Hyundai, with its new line of vehicles luring as much as 7417 new car buyers in the month while Nissan and Mitsubishi, both from Japan, sold 5587 and 4851 vehicles respectively.

Australia's declining domestic car sales were attributed by FCAI to the local market's tough competition environment.

"There are over 60 brands available to consumers, which is double the brands available in the much bigger US market and about the same number of brands available in Europe, where they sell 10 million cars a year, compared to our one million," FCAI chief executive Steve Payne was quoted as saying in report.

Echoing the general sentiment of Australia's manufacturing industry, Payne blamed the high value of the Australia dollar as one of the major headaches of the local car industry "because it makes imported vehicles more attractive."

Also, the FCAI acting chief called on the government to finally implement a conducive and long-term policy for the industry that he noted currently employs some 60,000 workers, with production and marketing activities that extend benefits to another 250,000 local employees.