And now for the good news

You just know when it's been a bad month for sales. Usually, there's a good half dozen press releases from manufacturers and importers, trumpeting the new records set for the month. Leading up to the publication of VFACTS figures for October however, it was all rather quiet on that front.

All the same, some companies did have reason to crow. These were the car companies that not only sold larger numbers of cars during October 2008 than they did for the same month last year, but are also ahead in total sales for the year to date.

Working our way through the list alphabetically, we start with Audi. The German prestige importer sold 705 cars in October, contributing to its total of 8110 for the year to date. That's 100 units more than for October 2007 and 1815 units ahead of its year to date total for 2007. In percentage terms, Audi's sales have grown this year by 28.8 per cent and the company is well on its way to setting yet another sales record in Australia. How do they do it!?

BMW, nothing like as far ahead of the pack as Audi, still posted marginally higher volumes for October (1590) and for the year to date (14,829). With a year-to-date sales growth of 5.4 per cent, BMW picked up four extra cars sold in October for a nett gain of 755 units for the year to date. Not much for the month, but better than going backwards...

Ford is the only local manufacturer to enjoy better sales both for the month and for the year to date. 361 extra sales in October over the same month for the previous year (8567 units in total for October) kept the year-to-date figure (89,983) ahead of the same period for 2007 -- but only just. The difference in year-to-date comparing 2008 with 2007 is just 108 units in all.

Nissan is another company that isn't fazed by the current economic climate, but like Ford, its October sales result makes the difference between a nett gain for the year to date and a sales slump. 5219 vehicles sold during October put Nissan 755 units ahead of its October 2007 total -- and 448 units ahead for the year to date (50,854 units sold so far this year, versus 50,406 for the same period last year).

Renault has introduced the new Laguna this year, along with the Clio Sport 197, the Megane dCi 195 and the Koleos SUV, so it's not altogether surprising that with so much new product, it's ahead in both sales for the month and sales for the year to date. The company sold 306 units for the month -- an improvement of 100 units over October '07 -- and that has raised the year-to-date figure to 2662 units, which is 255 units ahead of the figure for the same period last year. Slowly, but surely...

Suzuki posted a record month of sales in October and still appears to be on its way to meeting its annual sales target for 2008, despite the downturn. 2042 units sold for the month placed it 79 units ahead of its sales for October '07 and added to the year-to-date total of 19,340 -- 1196 vehicles and a 6.6 per cent gain on the same period in 2007.

Companies such as Fiat, Hummer and Skoda have also improved on year-to-date and October sales figures, but these are cases where the companies either weren't established for the full year 2007 or have introduced massively popular new models during 2008 -- or both.

Is there a common thread in these success stories? Whether it's a case of hubris, desperation or just over-reaching ambition, the companies concerned all seem to have something to prove at a retail sales level.

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