Flagging Territory, stagnant HiLux

There's plenty of action in the SUV and LCV market segments at the moment -- and a couple of old hands are suffering from buyer ennui.

The two sales results for the month that stood out were the Ford Territory's slow capitulation to more modern designs in the medium SUV segment, and the Toyota HiLux's rapidly diminishing lead in the 4x2 pick-up and cab chassis segment.

Territory's sales dropped by 164 units for month, compared year-on-year with February 2007. The Territory sold 1299 units for Feb '07, but the Toyota Kluger has pulled ahead of the Ford with sales of 1404 for the month. This gives the Toyota the nominal lead in the SUV sales race, but even the heavy duty Prado is within striking distance of the Territory, having notched up 1262 sales for February.

The Territory was even overtaken by the RAV4, among the compact SUVs -- the small Toyota selling 1409 units for the month. Of the three Toyotas, only the Prado sold fewer cars than in February 2007. The Kluger's rapid climb has been particularly impressive, with market share rising from 5.8 per cent in February 2007 (336 units sold) to 18.8 per cent.

It's not all going Toyota's way, however.

The normally unassailable HiLux 4x2 sold 1497 units in February -- 44 units of Holden's VE Ute (1453 units). Unlike the Territory, the HiLux actually sold more, year on year, but so did the Holden. Compared with February last year, the VE Ute has recorded 22.1 per cent market share, versus 15.6 per cent -- a jump not quite in the same camp as the Kluger's, but pretty strong nonetheless.

So the Toyota is not actually performing badly, it's just the Holden is doing pretty well. Even Ford's Falcon Ute is holding up nicely, considering the FG model is due to go on sale within a couple of months -- it was a little down in sales, YOY, with 1207 units sold for Feb '08 versus 1285 for February 2007.

But Toyota is facing serious erosion of HiLux sales in coming months. Ford's Ranger sold over 800 units better than the Courier this time last year. Similarly, Mazda's BT-50 sold over 400 units more than for the same month last year. Mitsubishi Triton picked up 357 more units, YOY -- and Toyota will be keeping an eye on Nissan's Navara 4x2 too.

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