August VFACTS: New car sales surge

The Australian new-vehicle market was a showcase of both contrasting fortunes and the effectiveness of discounting during the month of August, as Holden and Ford bounced back and Hyundai dropped from its recent peak.

Monthly figures due to be released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries today reveal the market was up three per cent on a record 2015. Some 94,909 vehicles were registered during August according to preliminary industry figures obtained by motoring.com.au -- 4204 or 4.6 per cent more than the corresponding period last year.

Toyota continued its dominance atop the market, finishing with 18,650 transactions thanks in part to four individual models ranking inside the top 10. The Corolla (3554) and HiLux (3311) finished the month one-two, while the Camry (2458) snuck up to fifth overall with a strong result and the RAV4 finished 10th (1766).

August was also memorable for local car-makers Ford and Holden on the eve of their respective 2016 and 2017 manufacturing exits.

Holden reported 7667 sales -- enough to position it third outright behind Toyota and Mazda (9258), while Ford (6849) squeezed into fourth overall on the back of continued demand for its Ranger utility.

Conversely, the Falcon stablemate continued its crawl to an October 7 end date, managing a meagre 693 sales between sedan and utility variants for the month.

The Blue Oval and Lion brands bounced back thanks in part to Hyundai’s sales slowdown. After months near the pointy end of the market, punctuated by heavy discounting of the i30 small car, the Korean marque dropped to fifth overall in August with 6536 sales – its worst ranking so far this year.

Tellingly, the i30 fell off a cliff; during June sales when it was being offered for $19,990 with free automatic transmission it managed to exceed 6400 sales. With the promotion no longer offered, Hyundai reported just 1864 i30 sales, which suggests prospective customers are waiting out until the next sales drive.

The reliance on discounted sales is highlighted in the split between retail and business/fleet buyers during August. Figures show a fall in retail sales across passenger (-11.2 per cent) and SUV (-5.4 per cent) portfolios, aligning with the lower emphasis on discounting. Business/fleet sales were up at the same time in both passenger (+5.7 per cent) and SUV (+23.5 per cent) segments.

Other insights from the August results reveal Australians prefer their vehicles sporty or high riding. Sports car sales are up 31 per cent thanks to affordable new models like the Ford Mustang and Mazda MX-5. SUV sales are also up considerably across Medium and Large segments, with incremental growth in the Small segment.

Conversely, both the Micro segment (down 18.5 per cent YTD) and Light segments (down 18.1 per cent YTD) were down, showing the humble passenger car is not as popular as it once was.

Industry stakeholders are confident the August result will help drive an new record in annual sales close to some 1.2 million vehicles.

Top selling brands for August were: Toyota (18,650), Mazda (9258), Holden (7667), Ford (6849), Hyundai (6536), Mitsubishi (6136), Nissan (5616), Volkswagen (3893), Kia (3710) and Subaru (3362).

The top 10 cars for August were: Toyota Corolla (3554), Toyota HiLux (3311), Ford Ranger (2964), Mazda3 (2818), Toyota Camry (2458), Holden Commodore (1952), Mazda CX-5 (1902), Hyundai i30 (1864), Mitsubishi ASX (1781) and Toyota RAV4 (1766).