Sales of light vehicles in China declined 0.03 percent to 2.6 million vehicles in November from a year earlier, marking the first time the market failed to rise in nearly two years, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported.

The slight year-on-year dip reflected explosive sales growth a year earlier, noted John Zeng, Asian director of LMC Automotive.

At the time, consumers were rushing to buy new vehicles before a sales tax increase took effect on January 1, 2017. The sales tax on vehicles with engine sizes of 1.6 liters and below rose to 7.5 percent, up from 5 percent.

The tax will increase to 10 percent on January 1, 2018.

In November, growing demand for crossovers and SUVs was offset by declining deliveries of sedans, multipurpose vehicles and microvans. For the month, combined sales of crossovers and SUVs rose 8.9 percent to 1.1 million vehicles.

But sedan deliveries dropped 4.8 percent to 1.22 million, while MPV sales fell 8 percent to roughly 216,800. Microvan demand slumped 21 percent to approximately 41,300.

For the first 11 months, China’s light-vehicle sales edged up 1.9 percent from a year earlier to nearly 22.1 million vehicles.