Bumper year for prestige brands

A year that promises to set a new record for the Australian new-car market is already producing a series of personal bests among the various car companies... particularly those selling prestige models.

Mercedes-Benz has already notched up over 30,000 sales for the year – a new record for the brand and also a first for any prestige marque in Australia.

"It was only six years ago we did 15,000," said Senior Manager for Corporate Communications at Mercedes-Benz, David McCarthy, who told motoring.com.au the company was "pretty pleased" by the result.

And car number 30,000?

"It was a GLC..." says McCarthy.

But where will it end? Can the rising sales volumes for prestige cars be sustainable?

"We just keep going... it's a milestone," McCarthy replied.

"We'll crack 4000 AMGs for the year; we'll probably end up 31,000 to 31,500 for the year. And somewhere in there... we'll actually have passed 300,000 units in 30 years."

Benz isn't alone in seeing untrammelled growth in sales this year. Audi, which narrowly failed to sell 20,000 cars last year, has already crossed that threshold, with one month of the year remaining. In last month's VFACTS report, Ingolstadt had sold 21,100 cars for the year to date. Based on the 2000 cars sold in November, Audi threatens to finish the year at around 23,000 cars – yet another sales record in a continuing sequence since 2004. And that's despite the Dieselgate scandal that has unfurled around Audi and its parent company Volkswagen.

BMW is about 2500 sales ahead of where it was this time last year – on 23,320 for 2015 so far. That's already ahead of its 2014 tally of 22,722. With the brand selling close to 2000 units in December of 2014, it's likely to hit 25,000 sales for the full year 2015. Audi is closing in on BMW however. At the end of 2010, BMW was over 5000 sales ahead of Audi, but five years on the gap will have closed to around 2000 units. We'll know more next month, when VFACTS releases full year figures for 2015, including the month of December.

It's not just the German prestige brands making hay in 2015. Even Infiniti, which arrived here just a few years ago, with too few dealers, has seen its sales increase in 2014 and 2015 respectively, from 397 to 530 for the year to November. For the full year 2014, Infiniti sold 441 vehicles – a figure already surpassed this year, with one month of sales remaining to be collated.

Jaguar, buoyed by the new XE, is up from 1073 to 1124 in year-to-date sales. Interest in the XF has waned, ahead of the new model arriving soon. But that new model and the XE combined – plus an expanded dealer network – and the promise shown by the F-PACE SUV should increase sales markedly in 2016.

Jaguar's stablemate, Land Rover, has enjoyed positive sales growth in 2015. Only the Range Rover Evoque has sold fewer cars than last year, based on year-to-date figures. The Discovery Sport has added around 650 additional sales to the 2014 figure for the Freelander 2, which still sold over 300 units this year. Aggregate sales for the Land Rover brand up to the end of November were 10,633 – nearly 1300 more than for the same period last year.

Lexus was yet another prestige brand raking in the sales. The arrival of the RAV4-based NX helped the brand lift its results from 6382 to the end of November 2014 to 8158 for the same period in 2015. Sales of other models in the range have declined, but the updated GS and new RX will turn that around in 2016.

Among the top-ten volume-selling brands, it was a mixed bag. None of the three local manufacturers sold more cars in 2015 (up the end of November) than during the same period in 2014. But all the importers have come ahead in leaps and bounds.

Honda's sales have risen, primarily on the back of the HR-V. Currently at 36,782 for the year to date, Honda is 7542 sales ahead of the same time last year, and is anticipating cracking the 40,000 unit barrier for the first time in five years.

Hyundai continued to show its rivals a clean pair of heels, posting a year-to-date figure of 94,845 – nearly 2500 more vehicles sold than for 2014 from January to November.

Also boasting a new, small SUV in 2015 (the CX-3), Mazda's sales are over 12,000 units ahead of the same time last year – 104,316 versus 91,973 in 2014. The final result seems virtually certain of ending above 110,000 for the year, and possibly as high as 115,000.

At 64,243 sales Mitsubishi has sold 3044 more vehicles this year, to date, than it did from January to November 2014.

Nissan's sales in 2015 are just under 900 units ahead of last year, according to November VFACTS figures. Based on its December 2014 result, Nissan seems unlikely to reach 70,000 sales by the end of 2015, but its year-to-date figure of 61,050 places it in a strong position to exceed 66,000 for the year.

Subaru is another of the top ten brands pulling down higher sales in 2015. At 39,991 for the year to date, it's nearly 3000 units ahead of its sales score for the same period in 2014. It's likely to finish the year somewhere around 43,500 for the year.

Despite the bad press from its Dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen is actually ahead of its year-to-date figure in 2014. By the end of November last year VW had sold 50,262 cars and commercials. For the same period in 2015 it has sold 55,767 – 5505 more vehicles, year on year.