Healthy sales harvest for a few

Gleaning long-term information on new car sales from June VFACTS figures is a bit like reading tea leaves, but that doesn't mean there aren't reasons for some car makers to pop the odd champagne cork.

We all know by now that June was a startling month -- the third strongest on record -- that brought some unexpected performances (more here). Holden V8s experienced a resurgence and Toyota's HiLux made history by being the first ute ever to top the monthly sales charts.

And, according to Holden's executive director of sales and marketing, Alan Batey, fears of a sales drop-off in July following upped end of financial year sales in June appear to have dissipated as dealers experience overflowing order books.

All good news for the industry, but almost cause for euphoria for importers like Mazda, Hyundai and Audi, who quoted all-time record monthly sales for June.

Mazda retailed no less than 8406 vehicles for the month against its previous record of 7565 sales in March 2008, while Hyundai shifted a record 7862 units to earn fifth spot on the year-to-date sales ladder behind Mazda.

Contributing to Mazda's performance was the new Mazda3 model that continued to reinforce the case for small cars by reaching fourth spot for the month behind Toyota Corolla, Holden Commodore and Toyota HiLux.

Hyundai was the only top-ten player to improve on its year-to-date sales, much of which was due to the efforts of three models -- i30, Tucson and iLoad -- each of which recorded highest-ever monthly market share in their segments. The Getz light car also recorded top sales in its segment during June.

For Mazda, strong sales of the Mazda3, Mazda6 and BT-50 ute -- all up on June 2008 figures -- contributed to keeping the company on track for a revised 2009 sales figure that recently went from 68,000 to 70,000.

Subaru was another importer to record best-ever figures for an individual model with the Impreza notching up 1568 sales in June -- up 52.1 per cent on June 2008.

And luxury importer Audi continued the momentum with its best-ever monthly sales on record, meaning the company can continue to spruik that it's the "fastest-growing premium car maker in Australia".

Audi shifted 1018 vehicles in June, which was a 23.4 per cent month-on-month improvement that lifted year-to-date sales to 5611 vehicles.

Audi and Hyundai were among a select few car makers that actually recorded better year-to-date sales figures than 2008, although a few did better month-on-month.

The winners on year-to-date figures -- some of them admittedly not big players and scraping in by the skin of their teeth -- included Hyundai, Audi, Dodge, Fiat, Isuzu, Jaguar and Skoda.

Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Holden, Jeep, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Nissan, Peugeot, Porsche, Renault, Volkswagen and Volvo were among those who did better in June this year than the same period last year, but still fell behind on year-to-date figures.

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