[(Title)] Why car dealers are fudging the numbers of cars they actually 'sold'.

It should be simple really. Add up all the vehicles that have been sold to customers, and the total should be the number of new vehicles on Australia's roads.

计算销售额并不是什么难事。把所有出售给顾客的车辆加起来不就对了。实际上没有那么简单。

It's anything but.

According to the official figures, the industry is heading for its sixth consecutive year of sales of more than a million.

根据官方数字，澳大利亚汽车该行业连续第六年销售量超过100万辆。真是这样么？为什么这个数字不是汽车商会给出的呢？

Or is it?

Not according to the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce.

"We think that there's an over-reporting of vehicles sold to consumers by about 340,000 vehicles a year," the chamber's chief executive, Geoff Gwilym, told ABC News.

该厅首席执行长吉弗·格维利姆说：“我们认为，每年约有34万辆据称卖给消费者的车都是不存在的。”

An over-reporting dealers claim is forced on them by foreign manufacturers dumping cars into the Australian market to reach inflated sales targets.

外国制造商为了达到膨胀的销售目标，被迫将汽车倾销在澳大利亚市场。他们在业内被称为“网络汽车”。他说：“许多经销商不敢不接受这些汽车。这些是经销商必须购买和注册的汽车，看上去像是被出售，而实际上他们没有被卖给消费者。它们最终会以巨大折扣出售给客户，这些折扣会消耗经销商的利润。而且这么做能让保修期缩短，因为保修期从车辆注册时算起。”

They're known in the industry as "cyber cars".

"Many dealers are afraid not to take these cars," he said.

"And these are cars that the dealer has to buy and register so they look as though they are sold, when in actual fact, they're not sold to a consumer."

They do eventually get sold to a customer, often months later, at huge discounts, which wipes out dealer profits.

And for good measure there is a reduced warranty, because the warranty period starts when the car is registered.

The ABC spoke to a number of car dealers in preparing this report.

We heard chapter and verse of the bullying of dealers into buying cars for which there was no genuine customer demand.

However, no dealer was prepared to speak publicly, out of fear of reprisals from the car manufacturers.

And the over-reporting of sales has implications outside the car industry.

Economists see new vehicle purchases as an early warning sign of the state of the housing market, which is an indicator of the state of the economy.

然而，由于担心汽车制造商的报复，没有经销商准备公开发言。此外，过度报告销售对汽车行业也有影响。经济学家认为，新车购买是房地产市场状况的预警信号，这是经济状况的一个指标。

"When car sales are going up it shows a degree of confidence, and we tend to see home sales, and home prices going up at the same time," Comm Sec chief economist Craig James said.

“当汽车销量上升的时候，它显示出一定程度的信心，我们倾向于看到房屋销售，同时房价也在上升，”商务部首席经济学家克雷格·詹姆斯（Craig James）说。他补充说，尽管汽车市场依然强劲，但最近几个月已经显示出疲软。

He added that, although the car market remains strong, the last few months have shown it is softening.

"Car affordability is probably the best it's ever been — but people are a little bit more conservative, a little bit more cautious, particularly given that home prices are flattening out."

“汽车目前的价格是比较正常的，但人们似乎变得保守了一些，更谨慎了一点，特别是考虑到房价正在逐渐趋稳。”

And while many car dealers feel their businesses are being damaged by bullying manufacturers, they are also seeing a threat from the events which unfolded at the banking royal commission.

In particular, tougher lending standards, which will mean loans that may have been waived through in the past will now be knocked back.

"You know, the plumber, the tradie, the carpenter who's got to have a work ute, but hasn't got robust cash flow," Australian Automotive Dealers Association chief executive David Blackhall said.

"He's got enough, but can't convince the bank that he should have that loan."

And then there is the political turmoil in Canberra, which is being felt throughout the economy, including the car industry.

随后堪培拉出现了政治动荡，整个经济，包括汽车业，都感受到这种动荡。“我们在过去六个月中每个月都看到3%、4%、5%的下降。”当然，实际数字可能比报告的低三分之一。

"So you get this little negative bubble that gets into the equation," he said.

"People who might have spent on a new car pull back a little and then you see that trickle-down effect.

"And so you see the 3 per cent, 4 per cent, 5 per cent, month to month decrease that we've seen over the last six months."

That is of course, if you can believe the figures, which could be up to a third lower than reported.

It is why the industry is pushing the Government for a legislated definition of what a "car sale" is.

"It would seem fair that a car is sold when a consumer buys that car, it's registered to a consumer, it's got a number plate on it, and it drives out of the dealership," Mr Gwilym said.

At the moment there are thousands of cars sitting in dealerships all over Australia, counted as sold, when under that definition they are not.

Not a good look for an economy which could be headed for the slow lane.