Sales of newly purchased vehicles in Australia jumped 9 per cent in September, an indication that consumers prefer to spend their money on high-ticket yet essential items compared to lower-priced yet unnecessary items such as probably those sold in retail sales.

Sales in sports utility and commercial vehicles led the latest figures released on Thursday by the VFACTS report of the Australian Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. A total of 94,627 vehicle units were sold in September, compared to the 86,819 vehicle units sold in August.

This marked the second month that Australia's automotive car industry recorded robust sales.

Year on year, the report showed that sales of sport utility vehicles jumped 20.7 per cent. Sales of light commercial as well as heavy truck vehicles both enjoyed improved numbers, at 10.7 per cent and 12.4 per cent, respectively, compared to a year ago, on solid business investment scenario in Australia.

Overall, new vehicle acquisition sales in Australia for the nine months of 2012 improved 9.4 per cent from a year ago, with running sales placed at 822,674 units.

Vehicles manufactured by Toyota continued to dominate the new vehicle sales, cornering 18.3 per cent of the market. Mazda came in second at 10.7 per cent, while the Holden unit of General Motors dropped fell to third at 9.5 per cent. Hyundai is next at 8.3 per cent, and Ford at 8.2 per cent.