Industry forecasts new-car sales turnaround

After a sales surge in the lead-up to the end of the financial year, new-car buyers could be in for even more bargains in the next six months.

Japanese car makers in particular have started to receive excess shipments of cars to make up for earlier shortfalls.

This will likely lead to sharp discounts to ensure car makers and dealers don’t get caught with too much stock heading into next year.

So says one of the leading brands, Mazda, who has just resumed normal production levels after experiencing shutdowns in the wake of the Japanese earthquake in March.

“All we can say is there will never be a better time to buy a car than in the next six months,” said Mazda Australia managing director Doug Dickson.

“We’ve caught up production, no doubt others will over the next couple of months. There’ll be plenty of people seeking to get their numbers back so I think the next six to 12 months will be quite buoyant.”

Dickson said consumer confidence was improving after a tough start to the year.

“It’s good news from the car industry’s perspective. We were all held back a little bit because of the shortage of production from the tragic consequences of the earthquake,” he said.

“We have to remember that the first half economically … some fairly bad things happened. Floods, cyclone, the cessation of coal exports.

“The economists that we talk to say that it looks as though this financial year just ending will be about a 1.7 per cent growth (GDP). But the next financial year with the better terms of trade, Queensland reconstruction, coal investment, resource investment, they’re looking for a growth of about 4.2 per cent in the 2011- 2012 year.

“They’ve brought down their figures for last financial year and brought up the ones for 2011-2012 and 2012-2013,” he said.

The Australian new-car market is down by 5 per cent so far this year, but this figure has been dragged down by Toyota, Australia’s biggest selling brand, which is down by 16 per cent year to date.

Toyota was worst affected of all car makers by the Japanese earthquake and sales of several key models in Australia halved. The car maker has only recently resumed normal production and may not fully recover until November in some cases.