Private buyers raised up the ante on motor vehicle hunting in July as new vehicle sales soared by ten percent in the month compared to the sales figures posted in 2009 on the same month, with most customers taking a preference on the now-ubiquitous SUVs.

Fresh figures furnished by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) on Wednesday showed that total vehicles sales for the month was 82,376, which covered passenger cars, commercial vehicles and the fast-becoming all-time favourite four-wheel drive SUVs

FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said that the result was an improvement of 9.3 percent or 7,043 units from vehicles that rolled out from dealers' showrooms in July last year.

Mr McKellar said that the numbers were impressive enough considering that July marked the commencement of a new financial year, which is traditionally characterised by slowdowns in vehicle sales movements.

He said that the latest results were pointing to "further evidence that sales to private customers continue to increase strongly, recording a 20 per cent rise compared to this time last year."

Mr McKellar noted that the SUV segment of the market came out anew as the best performer in July as it achieved a jump of 29 percent in monthly sales, which was followed by light commercial vehicles in a bit far second spot at 13.7 percent sales improvement while passenger cars were able to post sales spikes of 3.2 percent in securing the third spot.