Australian & New Zealand March 2008 Sales Results: Toyota Beats Holden By 11,358!

[Zigmeister]

Originally Posted by Road Kill

Unlike us North Americans I thought the Australians had more pride. I guess I was wrong.

Pride in what? They're all foreign companies.

I'll stand corrected, but I think all of our Camrys and Aurions are built here, so there's no difference whether we buy those or Commodores or Falcons.

[Zigmeister]

Paul, they're the same car - just different lights and grilles.





<edit>... Oh wait - I think you do understand, Paul. Sorry about that.

Anyway, I'll leave the pics here for anyone else who might not...

[Ssom]

NZ Top 15 Models

1. Corolla- 481
2. Swift- 433
3. Commodore- 317
4. Mazda6- 213
5. Jazz- 195
6. Accord- 174
7. Civic- 139
8. Outlander- 138
9. Mondeo- 124
10. Mazda3- 118
11. Yaris- 115
12= Lancer- 114
12= SX4- 114
14. Colt Plus- 98
15. Aurion- 97

YTD Top 15
1. Corolla- 1710
2. Commodore- 1390
3. Swift- 934
4. Falcon- 530
5. Mazda6- 529
6. Mazda3- 505
7. Jazz- 484
8. Mondeo- 483
9. Civic- 445
10. SX4- 419
11. Lancer- 415
12. Camry- 407
13. Mazda2- 404
14. Outlander- 389
15. Accord- 371

[BBDOS CV8]

It's not all bad news for Holden - the Camry and the Corolla are the new fleet queens according to one of the posters on the LS1.com.au page, because many government departments and QANGOs that purchase fleet are downsizing to fours becasue of petrol price. And you do see many more company and guvmint Toyos around.

The boost in Aurion sales is off the back of a big price cut a few months back and an aggressive push for sales. That must be hurting to some degree, they're almost giving away the upgrade to a Lexus powertrain for the price of a upspec Camry. And Camry sales would be a worry - once they religiously sold 3,000-3500 a month. In fact the Avalon for the first couple years sold more per month than the Aurion has so far, so it isn't all good news for the big T.

Ultimately, what has held Camry resales up in comparison to Commodores is available secondhand stock. In a year or two once these ex-lease cars start flooding the auction yards, just watch resales of the private secondhand ones plummet.

The other factor is: in 2007 the previous governemt raised the cutover of marginal tax rates to $75K from $50k, and cut it from 47% to I think 42%.
When I leased my Monaro through salary-sacrifice I was able to cut my taxable income by nearly 1/3 and pay all my tax at the pre-marginal rate, so compared to a personal loan to buy, I was ahead by my running costs per year - almost $5,000 plus my employer paid all the GST. Plus at then end of two years I bought the car off the lease for fully 20% less than an equivalent 2-year old car would have cost,

With the changes to taxation, I would have to be earning over $100K per year to make the same leasing deal work. And where I work many people who were on private leasing are not renewing, many have bought their last lease car and intend to keep it.

The Falcon XR6 and Commdore SV6 are to a large degree private fleet-lease vehicles. The Omega still does solidly but few private owners buy them.

Holden had already taken steps out of that market - the fact that V8 sales (which have always been mostly private) are such a large proportion of VE is a reflection that the V8 is viewed as a better car, but it's also because Holden made a conscious decision to go that way.

Plus Holden is now building many cars for overseas markets, so I think you will see lean months where there is just not much product around on dealers lots so sales will be lower. One reason they appear to be rationalising models. They don't have to sell so many cars here. That's different to having to idle your plants and send staff on leave because you have paddocks full of cars.

Like I said, psychologically losing the no 1 seller badge isn't good, but practically letting Toyo scrape off more low-margin business will just reinforce them as the McDonalds of car companies.

BMW and Mercedes don't compete with Toyo numberswise either, but they certainly aren't hurting for profits.

[RedVee8]

^^ yes i Sal sacrificed the Captiva Nov 06. But i'll just turn it over for something else in 09. Luckily for me my current agreement is for a fully maintained car, so repairs, tyres, petrol etc are all included. I did 32,500 kms in the first full 12 months, hitting 45,000 this weekend (16mnths), so I think it works for me.

however, the change in our fleet is incredible. From all Commodores & Falcons, to CooperS, Astra, CX7 x2, Mazda 6, Mazda 6 wagon x a few, Kluger x2, Captiva x2, Civic, Pajero plus a few Commodores and one lonely falcon wagon. There are others just a sampling of the top of my head :-) . One of the big bosses gets something different every 2 years, going backwards CX7, Territory Ghia, Hyundai Terracan, previous about 6 Holdens in a row.
Sorry to bore you, just a demonstration of what BBDOS CV8 is talking about. Huge changes in the Business and Semi business fleet due to legislative changes over the last 6 -10 years.

[JoeT]

I just posted some more Aussie results in my first post.

[mikmak]

http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/Ar...ID=50935&vf=12

Page 2 is interesting with a note about thailand becoming more impotant (from a regional manufacturer perspective)

[BBDOS CV8]

Interesting - I went to Booran Holden for parts on the w/e. This is a big suburban S-E suburbs outlet on Nepean Hwy. They have HSV, and also are a Suzuki dealer. They've been there for years (a friend bought a new 1983 Gemini from them) and have another big outlet with a third site for secondhand cars about ten miles away each. They're a big dealers, move a lot of cars. Service carpark is always jammed and they are pretty good with a good rep.

They had one each SS and SS-V on the lot. One SS Ute, Two LS2 Clubsports and a GTS inside - no deals, despite news of the LS3 coming. That was all their V8 stock.

No Barinas, one Epica CDX, one Captiva. There were no LWB cars apart from one in the showroom. In the delivery area there was a Caprice, Commys, some Astras, couple utes, couple Rodeos. Nowhere near full.

They had one sad NOS Crewman V6 sitting there. All the rest, two Berlinas, a Calais and a couple of Lumina Commodores were V6s. Demos, they had a Captiva, an Epica, a Barina and a couple Commodores. Plus salesmans cars like a Clubby and SS, Astra TDi (personal plates, so not demos).

By contrast, they had a full lineup of Suzukis and more than one of most.

The dealers aren't from what I see sitting on a lot of cars.

You expect to see lots of lower-end cars to sell and this dealer used to have them jammed on the lot.

My Monaro was the last of a lot of six-seven for sale at once from this one dealer.

Now their cars are spaced out on the lot and the holding area is nearly empty. They used to have Senators, GTOs, Clubbys - sort of dealer who orders these for stock. Many of them are traded back through the secondhand yard.

I'm wondering whether maybe they also have trouble sourcing stock from Holden and Daewoo - 100,000 Daewoos a year are going to Europe, god knows how many Aveos to America plus they've taken over market leadership at home. Plus the strain of making and shipping cars to M-E and US on Holden. HSV is making cars for England and M-E.

[Patto1]

Originally Posted by BBDOS CV8

Like I said, psychologically losing the no 1 seller badge isn't good, but practically letting Toyo scrape off more low-margin business will just reinforce them as the McDonalds of car companies.

Why on earth any private car buyer would buy a Toyota now is beyond me.

Toyota's smack of fleet fodder, their resale values will start plummeting if they haven't already, when all these fleets start off loading them.

Also, the Commodore will bounce back in May when the new sportwagons are released, don't forget the VE sales at the moment are sedans only (utes sales are separate) not bad when they are competing with Corolla sedans + hatches.

That would still make the Commodore Australia's top selling sedan.

.

[nota]

Originally Posted by JoeT

I just posted some more Aussie results in my first post.

Am curious to see if Hummer outsold Fairlane ...