Australian & New Zealand July 2008 Sales Results: Commodore Leads Market

[JoeT]

Australian July 2008 Sales Results

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries
5 August 2008
www.fcai.com.au

Australian new vehicle sales softened in July, reflecting broader economic conditions and the impact of the proposed luxury car tax increase.

Official VFACTS figures released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show that 83,976 cars, trucks and buses were sold in July - down 2,315 vehicles (2.7%) compared to the same month last year.

Year-to-date the car market is up 2.6 per cent on the same time last year, which was an all-time record year.

"Higher fuel prices, interest rates and the wider economic uncertainty have resulted in a slowing of people heading to showrooms," FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said.

The figures also show that sales of so-called ‘luxury' cars fell by 33 per cent in July, compared to the previous month.

"The proposed tax hike has had a devastating impact on new car sales," Mr McKellar said.

"It is clear that the downturn has been exacerbated by the impact of this unfair tax hike, and the industry has significant concerns that orders will continue to be affected in coming months," he said.

"If this situation continues, the government will not receive the additional revenue it had projected and there is a real risk that it will cost jobs," Mr McKellar said.

"In these circumstances, one would have to question why the government would pursue this tax increase," he said.

Sales in most of the passenger car and Sports Utility Vehicle segments (SUV) were down except for light cars (up 1.0%), SUV medium (up 8.1%) and SUV large (up 7.4%).
Light commercial vehicle sales held up well in July, with an increase of 897 vehicles or 6.3 per compared to the same month last year.

Toyota remained the top selling marque in July with 24.4 per cent of the market, followed by Holden with 13.3 per cent and Ford with 11.3 per cent.

Year-to-date, Toyota leads the sales race with 147,961 vehicles sold, followed by Holden with 78,271 and Ford with 63,933 vehicles.


Top Australian Brands July 2008

Brand - Sales - YTD
1. Toyota - 20,521 - 147,961
2. Holden - 11,148 - 78,271
3. Ford - 9464 - 63,933
4. Mazda - 6508 - 49,001
5. Nissan - 5261 - 36,061
6. Mitsubishi - 4277 - 39,444
7. Hyundai - 3759 - 28,176
8. Honda - 3566 - 33,734
9. Subaru - 2816 - 23,622
10. Volkswagen - 2634 - 19,041


Top Australian Vehicles July 2008

Vehicle - Sales
1. Holden Commodore – 4906
2. Toyota Corolla – 4476
3. Toyota Hilux - 3553
4. Ford Falcon – 3448
5. Mazda 3 – 2839

Toyota Yaris – 2401
Toyota Camry – 1912
Hyundai Getz – 1574
Holden Astra – 1488
Mazda 2 – 1447
Mitsubishi Lancer - 1,395
Toyota Aurion - 1,376
Ford Focus - 1243
Toyota Prado – 1404
Toyota Aurion – 1376

Ford Falcon Ute - 1328
Subaru Forester – 1226
Mitsubishi Triton - 1151
Toyota RAV4 – 1114
Ford Territory – 1028
Honda Civic - 1,007
Toyota Kluger – 970
Honda Accord Euro – 894
Holden Commodore Ute - 864
Nissan X-Trail – 839

Subaru Impreza - 796
Honda Accord 788
Mazda 6 – 772
Mazda BT-50 - 755
Holden Barina - 750
Holden Captiva - 738
Toyota Landcruiser Wagon – 712
Holden Rodeo - 680
Mitsubishi Outlander - 599
Holden Viva - 554

Toyota Landcruiser PU/CC - 632
Honda CR-V - 582
Subaru Liberty 477
Holden Colorado - 346
Mitsubishi Pajero - 339
Ford Mondeo -309
Holden Statesman – 294
Mitsubishi 380 - 264
Holden Epica - 259
Subaru Outback - 252
Holden Caprice – 98
Chrysler 300C – 78



New Zealand July 2008 Sales Results

Motor Industry Association New Zealand
5 August 2008
www.mia.org.nz

July Sees Big Drop in New Vehicle Sales.

July has seen the biggest seasonal drop in new vehicle sales since the nineties, but the 15.7% reduction in combined new car and commercial vehicle sales against July 2007 compares with a 36.8% fall in sales of used imported vehicles.

5429 new cars were sold in July compared with 6382 for the same month last year, and 2059 new commercial vehicles were sold against 2497 for July 2007.

“It’s certainly been a roller-coaster winter so far,” said Perry Kerr, CEO of the Motor Industry Association. “There were signs of a slowdown in new vehicle sales in May, then June bounced back strongly, followed by a July which has reflected most of the recent negative economic data.”

For the seven months year to date, new car sales are running at virtually the same level as the equivalent period last year, and new commercial vehicle sales are 4.3% ahead.

Toyota continue to extend their lead over Ford and Holden in new vehicle sales, while Corolla maintains the year to date lead over Commodore as the country’s top selling car model.


Top New Zealand Brands July 2008

Brand - Sales
1. Toyota - 1561
2. Ford - 990
3. Holden - 761
4. Mazda - 577
5. Mitsubishi - 534
6. Honda - 460
7. Nissan - 404
8. Suzuki - 402
9. Hyundai - 365
10. Volkswagen - 191

11. Subaru - 143
12. Daihatsu - 140
13. Kia - 137
14. Audi - 85
15. Peugeot - 75
16. BMW - 66
17. Mercedes Benz - 61
18. FIAT - 48
19. Land Rover - 25
20. Jeep - 24


Top New Zealand Vehicles July 2008

Vehicle - Sales
1. Holden Commodore - 340
2. Toyota Corolla - 335
3. Ford Falcon - 334
4. Suzuki Swift - 241
5. Honda Accord - 231
6. Mazda6 - 191
7. Mazda3 - 178
8. Ford Mondeo - 119
9. Toyota Camry - 115
10. Mitsubishi Outlander - 111

Australian & New Zealand June 2008 Sales Results

[JoeT]

July VFACTS: Luxury Tax Stalls New Car Market

David Hassall
5 August 2008
www.goauto.com.au

Impending tax increase causes the Australian car market to stagger.

Luxury car importers endured an expected bloodbath in July as the controversial – and still to be confirmed – increase in the luxury car tax had a devastating affect on the new-vehicle market, causing sales to drop for only the second time in 19 months.

According to official VFACTS figures released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), sales of cars over the LCT threshold of $57,123 dropped by one-third in July compared with June.

While the tax increase will not be ratified by parliament until the end of this month at the earliest, the government has said it will be backdated to July 1, so customers were taking no risks and clearly pulled forward their purchases to June.

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[FISH]

Originally Posted by JoeT

Australian July 2008 Sales Results

Vehicle - Sales
1. Holden Commodore – 4906
2. Toyota Corolla – 4476

Well, at lest the Commodore is back in front...

[Baz]

Where did the hilux go?

[mikmak]

Originally Posted by Baz

Where did the hilux go?

Looks like it dropped off the map. I would assume, based on its past popularity, that maybe supply is having trouble keeping up.

As for Commodores 500 sale romp over Corolla, it probably has a lot to do with the wagon. Talk about a battering of marketing! They certainly aren't taking any chances when it comes to getting the word out. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain or if it was just the initial surge. Sorry, 430 sales

[paul8488]

Astra had an okay month... not all that far behind the Getz, and ahead of the Focus. Anyone know how many Mondeos were sold? I always like to see how the Epica compares! Wonder if and/or when the Falcon will pass the Commodore. Nice to see Camry and Aurion not matching Commodore numbers. If only the Barina and Viva were pulling their own weight... Holden counts too much on the poor Commodore! I really hope that Australia is fast-tracked to get new small cars as soon as they are available... the Commodore can't float the brand forever!

[Rick_VT]

Statesman and Caprice with 400 combined sales is pretty good, some good profit lines there for Holden, Epica went up, hope should continue and maybe start getting up to 700-1000 a month now with decent supply and newer model, it just needs to do well in reviews when they do it now, unlike previous models, good to see Astra back in top 10 as well, combined rodeo/colorada hit 1000, hope Holden can get those up round 1500-2000 a month to try cash in on the mining boom that helped toyota sell so many hiluxes, are these high profit vehicles since they come in from Thailand??

[TDi]

Originally Posted by paul8488

Astra had an okay month... not all that far behind the Getz, and ahead of the Focus. Anyone know how many Mondeos were sold? I always like to see how the Epica compares! Wonder if and/or when the Falcon will pass the Commodore. Nice to see Camry and Aurion not matching Commodore numbers. If only the Barina and Viva were pulling their own weight... Holden counts too much on the poor Commodore! I really hope that Australia is fast-tracked to get new small cars as soon as their available... the Commodore can't float the brand forever!

Ford sold 309 Mondeo's, so just ahead of the Epica, which was on 259 units. Volkswagen's Passat nealy outsold Mondeo, on 306 units and what I'm finding really surprising, is that the all new Mazda 6 isn't doing anywhere near as well as what the previous model was doing.

The Accord Euro outsold the 6 and the Liberty was only just ahead of Mondeo and Passat, even Jetta outdoing the Epica.

Renault's new Laguna had another good month and Hyundai's Sonata and Kia's Magentis are only just keeping intouch.

[Aych Es Vee]

I'm worried for the Falcon!
The FG has been released, sales should be growing and surpassing the Commodore and Corolla for a few months at least.... :s

[GM-Joe]

Australia sure loves Toyota, especially the Yaris and Corolla which to me makes little sense.

[ford&holden]

Originally Posted by Aych Es Vee

I'm worried for the Falcon!
The FG has been released, sales should be growing and surpassing the Commodore and Corolla for a few months at least.... :s

The FG will never pass the commodore, Holden had drive away specials on astra and special edition VE's out in July.
As long as Holden and Ford are profitable, i don't care how many they sell.
Commodore is about 800 units behind the corolla YTD. Would be nice to have the FG keep corolla from taking the commodore's number one position for the year though!

Interesting to note the decline in luxury vehicle sales due to the hike in tax, i think we need to wait a few months before we can say this has had a long term effect.

[ford&holden]

Originally Posted by GM-Joe

Australia sure loves Toyota, especially the Yaris and Corolla which to me makes little sense.

Both yaris and corolla are sold heavily to fleets, mazda 3 sales are almost all retail, same goes for the astra, focus, lancer and golf.

I bet Mazda makes far more money on the 3 than Toyota makes on the corolla.
Toyota AUS is a now a fleet queen like Holden and Ford.

Honda, mazda, Subaru, VW etc have more retail sales.

[BBDOS CV8]

Originally Posted by ford&holden

I bet Mazda makes far more money on the 3 than Toyota makes on the corolla.
Toyota AUS is a now a fleet queen like Holden and Ford.

Toyota is the fleet queen now - that's why Camry sales are so high. Wait'll all those low-km two year old cars hit the saleyards - I predict a lot of private buyers who take a bath on resale jumping ship to Mazda, whose small-medium cars in the 2,3 and 6 are kicking Toycar's arse in comparos. In fact, I'd say Mazda is probably now the no. 1 private car vendor in Oz for straight passenger vehicles.

On one hand, stupid f#%&ing pollies for mandating guv'mints of all levels buy 4-cylinders, which means imports, on the other hand Holden selling more retail is good. The Commodore was always going to come back when the wagon hit. Since 2007 it's been like a runner missing an arm - just try running fast with just one.

It and the Ute, despite the downsizing of both, appear to be just what the market wants. If I was buying new, I'd be looking at a Calais wagon.

I think Ford's doing pretty well with the Falc considering the conditions they're selling in, stupid high petrol prices and slowing economic conditions - there's tons of user-choosers appearing here at work (Big T site), XR6s of both types and some Ghias and XTs. If petrol weren't so dear they might even be challenging Commys and certainly Toycar.

[JoeT]

I've just added some more car sales results to the Aussie list.

[ford&holden]

Originally Posted by BBDOS CV8

Toyota is the fleet queen now - that's why Camry sales are so high. Wait'll all those low-km two year old cars hit the saleyards - I predict a lot of private buyers who take a bath on resale jumping ship to Mazda, whose small-medium cars in the 2,3 and 6 are kicking Toycar's arse in comparos. In fact, I'd say Mazda is probably now the no. 1 private car vendor in Oz for straight passenger vehicles.

On one hand, stupid f#%&ing pollies for mandating guv'mints of all levels buy 4-cylinders, which means imports, on the other hand Holden selling more retail is good. The Commodore was always going to come back when the wagon hit. Since 2007 it's been like a runner missing an arm - just try running fast with just one.

It and the Ute, despite the downsizing of both, appear to be just what the market wants. If I was buying new, I'd be looking at a Calais wagon.

I think Ford's doing pretty well with the Falc considering the conditions they're selling in, stupid high petrol prices and slowing economic conditions - there's tons of user-choosers appearing here at work (Big T site), XR6s of both types and some Ghias and XTs. If petrol weren't so dear they might even be challenging Commys and certainly Toycar.

Agreed, i'm very curious to see how the big T does when all the fleet and ex-rentals start flooding the used market, like you say though the goverments policy of buying only 4cyl vehicles is having an impact.
I remember working for a vehicle broker company a few years ago and back then many Toyota new car dealerships were willing to cut all profit out in order to get the numbers out on the road, not much has changed it would seem.
If only the goverments were smart enough to look into the fact that the 4cyl camry is NOT an efficient vehicle in comparison to many 6cyl vehicles.
Assumptions can screw you up if you're not careful.

Mazda does have the correct balance of retail and sales volume and it appears things can only remain robust for them.