April VFACTS: SUVs prop up market again

SUVs almost single-handedly drove Australia's new-vehicle market to a meagre 1.2 per cent sales increase last month, when they spiked by 17 per cent to remain 15.7 per cent or almost 17,000 up so far this year.

Meantime, sales of passenger cars slumped by another 10 per cent in April, when all but the sports car segment declined, to remain 4.4 per cent or more than 7500 cars down year-to-date.

According to official VFACTS figures due to be released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries today, the overall market is 3.5 per cent up on the same period in 2014 with almost 360,000 vehicles sold.

It therefore remains on target to eclipse last year's market of 1.113 million vehicles, which was down 2.0 per cent on the previous year.

However, this is thanks chiefly to last month's record March sales and the continued boom in 'lifestyle' vehicles such as SUVs and 4x4 utes, which were up another 6.1 per cent last month.

While all SUV sub-segments surged in April, small SUVs increased the most – by almost 31 per cent – and brands with relatively few SUV models or at least new SUVs experienced the biggest sales slides.

Biggest losers among the mainstream brands in April were Ford (down almost 20 per cent to be nearly 19 per cent of YTD), Holden (down 11.7 per cent to be off more than 10 per cent YTD) and Hyundai, which lodged a 5.5 per cent sales fall to be down 1.2 per cent after the first four months.

Nevertheless, Hyundai still overtook Holden in April, behind market leader Toyota, which was almost static at 2.5 and 2.0 per cent up for the month and year, and Mazda – which was one of the biggest winners in April with a 15.3 per cent sales surge, to be up 4.5 per cent YTD.

Ford was the fifth best selling brand last month, while Volkswagen surged into sixth with a near-14 per cent lift in sales to be up a similar amount YTD.

Nissan was static in seventh, followed by Mitsubishi (down 6.5 per cent in April), Subaru (up 5.1 per cent) and Mercedes-Benz, which spiked by 17.3 per cent to outsell Honda and remain up 22.7 per cent so far in 2015, with about 9800 non-commercial sales YTD.

The three-pointed star remains the dominant luxury brand, extending its lead over BMW by almost 600 registrations to nearly 2400, as the Bavarian brand slid 6.8 per cent in April but remains 8.8 per cent up YTD, while Audi was also up – by 12.8 per cent to by 14.7 per cent ahead YTD.

Mercedes had a winner in every segment last month – led by the C-Class, which has found more than twice as many homes as the 3 Series – except the C-Class Coupe (which was outsold by the BMW 4 Series), the SLK (which was defeated by Audi's new TT), the GLA (which was less popular than the Audi Q3), the M-Class (which continues to be outsold by the BMW X5) and the GL, which was knocked off by the Ranger rover and even Lexus' LX.

Lexus also performed well in April, thanks almost entirely to the new NX SUV and RC coupe, to be up almost 30 per cent in April and 11 per cent YTD, while Infiniti was up more than 12 per cent (month) and 40 per cent (YTD) from a low base of less than 200 sales, albeit within striking distance of Jaguar at just over 300.

Of the mainstream winners, Mazda's surge came mostly off the back of the new CX-3, which found 1396 buyers, and although the Mazda2, Mazda6 and CX-5 – Australia's top-selling SUV – were all up significantly, the Mazda3 was down almost 23 per cent at just 2365 and with 13,424 sales YTD now lies almost 1500 adrift of Toyota's Corolla (3238 in April; 14,910 YTD) in the battle to be Australia's top-selling car.

Ford Falcon sales, meantime, continued their slide with just 446 sold in April (down 31.7 per cent) to be almost 12 per cent down YTD (although Falcon Ute sales were up 42.5 per cent to 265), while Holden Commodore sales were down more than 16 per cent for the month at 2043, with the sedan and ute down a similar amount YTD.

Holden's other Australian-made car, the Cruze, slumped by almost 30 per cent to be 11.5 per cent down YTD.

Top selling brands for April were: Toyota (15,299), Mazda (8068), Hyundai (7210), Holden (7072), Ford (5163), Volkswagen (4572), Nissan (4188), Mitsubishi (4077), Subaru (3052) and Honda (2559). Only Holden, Hyundai and Ford have sold fewer cars for the year to date in 2015.

The 10 best selling cars during April were: Toyota Corolla (3238), Toyota Hilux (2789), Mazda3 (2365), Hyundai i30 (2298), Ford Ranger (2200), Holden Commodore (2043), Mazda CX-5 (1868), Volkswagen Golf (1728), Mitsubishi Triton (1538) and Toyota RAV4 (1399).

Top selling brands for April were: Toyota (15,299), Mazda (8068), Hyundai (7210), Holden (7072), Ford (5163), Volkswagen (4572), Nissan (4188), Mitsubishi (4077), Subaru (3052) and Honda (2559). Only Holden, Hyundai and Ford have sold fewer cars for the year to date in 2015.

The 10 best selling cars during April were: Toyota Corolla (3238), Toyota Hilux (2789), Mazda3 (2365), Hyundai i30 (2298), Ford Ranger (2200), Holden Commodore (2043), Mazda CX-5 (1868), Volkswagen Golf (1728), Mitsubishi Triton (1538) and Toyota RAV4 (1399).