With the industry struggling to throw off the effects of the coronavirus-driven recession, sales of new vehicles increased from 1130 in August to 1268 in September.

They fell as low as 618 in April as the downturn and movement restrictions started to take effect, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries VFACTS report.

September sales were 34.2 per cent weaker than sales in September 2019, and year to date sales were down by 27.7 per cent.

Of the eight states and territories, only coronavirus-bedevilled Victoria had bigger declines than Tasmania.

In order, starting in March, monthly Tasmanian new vehicle sales totalled 1257, 618, 844, 1688, 1298, 1130 and 1268.

September sales comprised 625 SUVs, 366 light commercials, 220 passenger vehicles and 57 heavy commercials.

Sales of all categories were weaker than in September 2019, although the gap was small for heavy commercials.

Sales of passenger vehicles more than halved between the two Septembers, from 490 to just 220.

SUV sales fell from 928 to 625 and light commercials from 448 to 366.

Toyota led the Tasmanian market for September sales (217) and year to date sales (2252).

No other marque had more than 1000 year to date new vehicle sales, with Mitsubishi running second on 919.

Top sellers behind Toyota in September were Ford (118), Mazda (108) and Hyundai (100).

The figures underlined the damage the tourism industry had taken from movement restrictions during the pandemic period.

The vehicle rental industry bought 1974 new vehicles in Tasmania in the first nine months of 2019 and 581 in September 2019 alone.

This year, it bought 311 new vehicles in the first nine months and just 10 in September.