THE all-terrain-vehicle or quad-bike market grew 2 per cent last year with sales topping 20,000 bikes.

The strength of quad bike sales was in contrast to the overall motorcycle market in Australia where sales for motorcycles, scooters and quad bikes dropped by 13.6 per cent compared with 2008.

There were 20,363 quad bikes sold last year, up from 19,990 sold in 2008 according to figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

Quad bike sales accounted for 17.6 per cent of the total motorcycle market in Australia where 115,981 motorbikes, scooters and quad bikes were sold last year.

Despite the drop in the overall market, last year was the fourth highest on record.

FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar described the sales as a "very solid result".

Quad bikes were the only motorcycle category to post a sales rise last year, an indication of the resilience of the primary production market.

A relatively new player in the quad bike market, Kymco, recorded sales of 189 bikes last year.

Kymco marketing manager Alan Collins said last year's sales had exceeded expectations.

"For a new competitor in the market, we are very happy with the sales result and the fact the quad bike market grew while motorcycle sales were down somewhat shows how strong the farming market is," Alan said.

"No doubt overall quad bike sales were boosted by the Federal Government's investment allowance and it gives us plenty of confidence going into this year," Alan said.

The FCAI sales figures show Yamaha was the market leader for quad bikes in terms of volume with 5503 sold last year, an increase of 1.2 per cent on 2008.

Honda sold 5392, an increase of 4.7 per cent on 2008 while Polaris was next on the list 3436 sales (up 7.8 per cent).

Suzuki sold 3296 (down 9.5 per cent) and BRP Australia posted a 23.2 per cent rise from 2008 with sales of 1260.

In terms of individual models, Honda dominated the market, with four of the top five sales results. Honda's TRX420 FA quad bike was the most popular with 1069 sales while the Honda TRX420 TM was the next highest seller with 981 sold.

The third most popular quad bike was the Yamaha YFM90 with sales of 922 units.