THE Australian car industry is suffering further blows with new vehicle sales crashing 17 per cent last month.
About 75,000 vehicles were sold last month, down from 91,285 a year ago.
Officials figures released on Friday put demand for the three months to the end of March down 19.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2008.
Locally-built vehicles were suffering the most with sales crashing by 28 per cent while demand for imports was down by 17.5 per cent.
Studies show more than 200 Victorian car industry jobs are immediately threatened, with battered US giant General Motors said to be close to deciding the future of its local Holden operation.
In the past three months GM-Holden has slashed production days and further down days could be on the cards with falling demand for the Commodore.
Truck maker Paccar is to sack up to 90 employees from its Kenworth operation. At least 60 Paccar employees at Bayswater are reported to have volunteered for redundancies, but the company said up to 30 more could be sacked this week.
The federal emissions standards scheme is being blamed for the downturn in truck sales, with a surge in orders from customers petering out since its introduction.
Paccar's two-month order list for Kenworth trucks had reportedly been reduced to just three weeks.
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