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Sales of new vehicles excluding motorcycles rose by 40.4 percent in October from the previous month, the strongest rise in sales since December, the Indonesian Automotive Industry Association reported on Thursday.

However, sales were depressed in September because many buyers postponed orders, and business days were down, because of Ramadan and the Idul Fitri holiday.

The automotive association, known as Gaikindo, said sales of private cars and commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses totaled 52,241 units in October.

Vehicle sales in the first 10 months of the year totaled 389,711 units, down 25 percent from 522,041 units during the same period last year.

Gaikindo chairman Bambang Trisulo said he was optimistic vehicle sales would exceed the association’s target of 450,000 units for 2009, following a recovery in demand midway through the year.

“If the October sales trend continues into November, I believe December and early next year’s sales volume will continue to grow,” Bambang said, adding that there could be a slight slowdown in sales at the end of the year because of holidays.

“If we sell 50,000 units in November then I think we will get to 470,000 units by the end of the year.” Bambang added that sales could reach 600,000 units next year if the recovery in demand continued.

Auto industry commentator Soehari Sargo shared Bambang’s view. Vehicle sales appeared to have made a full recovery in the last quarter of the year, he said.

“The Indonesian automotive sector will continue to show bright prospects as Indonesia still has a wide-open car market. The ratio of car ownership in Indonesia is one to 20 — one car for 20 people on average — while in developed countries the ratio is one to two,” Soehari said.

As usual, Toyota dominated the new vehicle market with 20,619 units sold in October, followed by Daihatsu with 8,024 units, Mitsubishi with 6,297 units and Honda with 5,354 units.

The October figures included truck and bus sales of 5,361 units and heavy trucks sales of 3,968 units.