Holden Commodore back to Number One

The Holden Commodore regained its title of Australia's top-selling car in March – figures due to be released at midday today (Tuesday 5 April) are expected to show.

However the Commodore, the top-selling vehicle for the past 15 years in a row, still narrowly trails the Mazda3 small car by about 500 sales when the first three months of the year are combined.
 
According to figures supplied to the Carsales Network, the Mazda3 has tallied approximately 11,150 so far this year compared to the Commodore's cumulative tally of 10,600.

The Carsales Network understands the Mazda3's March sales performance is its best month on record but this was yet to be confirmed as this article was published.

Holden Commodore sales had dipped by 10 per cent in the first two months of this year but a surge last month saw the sales increase by about 8 per cent from February to March.

In other surprises, the Toyota Hilux was the second biggest seller in March (when 4x2 and 4x4 sales are combined: 4020), narrowly outselling the Mazda3 (3980).

The news was not so good for the Holden's Commodore's main rival, the Ford Falcon, which recorded about 1700 sales according to figures supplied to the Carsales Network.

The weak sales performance of the Falcon came during a month when the factory wound back production to just three days a week. The Broadmeadows manufacturer has since returned to a five-day production cycle.

Official figures for the total market are expected to show that sales have softened slightly (by about 2 per cent) so far this year but the industry is still on track to eclipse 1 million new-vehicle sales.

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