June sales confound the pessimists
Passenger car sales are lagging, but SUVs and commercials lifted the market to a new financial year record in JuneHalf the calendar year has passed us, but the Australian new car market is still powering along. Commentators were expecting the combination of interest rate rises, higher fuel prices and a general downturn in global sharemarkets to forestall further growth in the market after consecutive years of new records.
According to industry statistician VFACTS, June -- the final month of the 07/08 financial year, carried the market across the line for another financial year record -- with a total of 1,068,301 vehicles sold. That represents an increase of 64,419 units over the 06/07 financial year. For the calendar year to date, the total market has reached 542,695 units, 3.5 per cent ahead of the same period for 2007.
If the market is to fail in setting a new record for the calendar year 08, the tipping point must now occur in the remaining six months.
The warning signs are there -- and much hinges on the sustained strength of SUVs and LCVs.
As for May, the market gained from bulletproof sales of SUVs and light commercial vehicles. Passenger cars were down on sales, barring light, small and medium cars. The year-to-date figure for passenger cars was 316,025 units, a 1.6 per cent decrease from the figure for '07.
By comparison, a year-to-date figure of 109,669 units of SUV represents a 13.2 per cent increase over 2007 and 99,005 units of light commercial vehicles have pulled 10.4 per cent ahead of the 2007 figure.
Being the end of the financial year, June was a particularly strong selling month for Toyota. The company sold 25,624 vehicles of all kinds for June -- the first occasion any car company has sold so many vehicles in any one month.
"We're up 9.4 per cent on the same time last year -- in a market that's up 3.5," said Dave Buttner, Toyota's Senior Executive Director Sales and Marketing.
Buttner acknowledges that the company is travelling well, but he attributes Toyota's commanding lead on second-placed Holden to a general loss of confidence in the large car segment -- one segment that Toyota doesn't dominate and one where Holden is very reliant on the success of its most popular model, the Commodore.
"There's no doubt we have a position of strength, volume-wise, versus our competitors -- at the moment -- but a lot of that has been driven by a downturn in the 'large six' market," Buttner observes.
However, Toyota's success must be laid at the company's door, rather than attributing it to the misfortune of competitors.
"So the fact [is] we have competitive product in most segments of the marketplace -- and we have just been through a major refresh of our product at the end of last year -- so it should be a time when we're at the top of our game," says Buttner.
Top five selling vehicles for the month:
Toyota Corolla: 5023
Toyota HiLux: 4530
Holden Commodore: 4284
Ford Falcon: 3483
Mazda3: 3286
Year-on-year performance by marque:
Toyota ? 25,624
Holden ? 11,968
Ford ? 10,286
Mazda ? 7524
Mitsubishi ? 8336
Honda ? 6217
Hyundai ? 5447
Nissan ? 5352
Subaru ? 4116
Volkswagen ? 3305
Suzuki ? 2419
BMW ? 2258
Mercedes-Benz ? 2054
Kia ? 2025
Audi ? 907
Lexus ? 741
Peugeot ? 705
Land Rover ? 491
Volvo Car ? 487
Jeep ? 474
Chrysler ? 322
Renault ? 293
Citroen ? 255
Proton ? 220
Saab ? 214
Fiat ? 203
MINI ? 187
Ssangyong ? 171
Dodge ? 158
Jaguar ? 124
Alfa Romeo ? 110
Porsche ? 106
Hummer ? 104
Skoda ? 83
Smart ? 37
Aston Martin ? 25
Maserati ? 24
Ferrari ? 18
Bentley ? 13
Lotus ? 6
Lamborghini ? 5
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