JUNE VFACTS: Market hits half a million

Australians bought 125,850 cars, trucks and buses in June, the last month of the 2014-15 financial year, setting a new June record and keeping the nation's new-vehicle industry on track for another record million-plus year with almost 580,000 sales at the halfway mark.

Official VFACTS figures to be released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries tomorrow are expected to show that total sales were up 6.4 per cent in June – led by the continued boom in SUV demand – to be 3.3 per cent ahead year-to-date (YTD).

Last month's increase was again led by SUV sales, which grey by almost 15 per cent to be up nearly 14 per cent YTD. All SUV buyer types were up, with sales to private buyers up by 11.7 per cent compared to the same month last year, while SUV sales to business were up 20.8 per cent and rental SUV sales spiked by almost 37 per cent to be up nearly 42 per cent YTD.

In contrast, passenger car sales remain down more than three per cent YTD, despite growing 4.7 per cent in June, when sales to businesses increased more than nine per cent.

Surprisingly, given the tax break for small business purchases up to $20,000 announced in the mid-May federal budget, light commercial vehicle sales were down more than three per cent down last month, with an 11.5 per cent slump in private sales, but remain 1.9 per cent up YTD.

Sales of Australian-made vehicles continued to decline in the lead up to the end of local manufacturing in 2017, by more than 10 per cent overall, with Holden leading the slump – down more than 15 per cent – followed by Ford (-9.5%) and Toyota (-0.8%).

Toyota again led the way with 21,000 sales (up 3.3%), despite a near-30 per cent slump in Aurion sales, offset by more sales of SUVs like the Kluger (up 74%) and RAV4 (up 30%), and the HiLux 4x2 (up 25%). However, the market leader lies just 0.6 per cent up YTD.

Holden sold 11,928 vehicles in June, including 2772 Commodores (-12.2%, to be down almost 16% YTD) and 1725 Adelaide-made Cruze cars (down almost 20% to be more than 15% down YTD), and now lies 8.9 per cent adrift of its June 2014 total with 51,737 sales.

Third in June was Mazda with 11,526 sales, including a big 4127 Mazda3s (this month falling just 30 sales short of the top-selling Toyota Corolla), a 32.6 per cent spike in BT-50 4x2 sales, 62 per cent more Mazda2 sales, almost 1000 CX-3 sales and spikes in sales of all SUVs. Mazda is now nine per cent up YTD with 56,591 sales – almost 5000 ahead of Holden in third.

Hyundai was the fourth best selling brand last month with just over 11,000 sales (up 10%), thanks almost exclusively to the i30 small car, which amassed more than 5500 sales to set a new record and become the nation's top-selling car in June. Combined with the Elantra sedan, Hyundai sold more than 6200 small cars in June – about 2000 more than the HiLux, Corolla and Mazda3.

All other Hyundai models except the Santa Fe, Accent and iLoad were down – the i20 by almost 80 per cent. The Korean car-maker is now within about 1500 sales of Holden so far in 2015.

Mitsubishi flew into fifth in June with 9011 sales (up 8.8%) on the back of ASX, Lancer, Mirage, Outlander and Triton 4x2 sales lifts, to remain fifth YTD with 35,866 sales (up 9.8%).

Ford sales slumped almost 17 per cent in June, to 7251, with all models slumping but the EcoSport, Kuga, Ranger and Transits. Falcon sales were off just 3.8 per cent at 531 (to be 13.5% down YTD), with Falcon Utes down 33 per cent down in June and 10.5 per cent off YTD. Overall YTD, Ford is down 17.6 per cent with 34,810 sales.

That's still more than Nissan (32,950 sales YTD – down 0.6%), which was 17 per cent down in June with 6636 sales – following sales slides for most passenger cars and all Navaras.

Rounding out the top eight for the month and year was Volkswagen with 7100 sales in June (up 7.7%) and 32,020 YTD (up 12.1%), thanks to strong sales of the Amarok, Golf, Polo, Touareg and Jetta.

Sales of luxury vehicles surged again in June, with the big three German brands up a combined 18 per cent – again led by Mercedes-Benz (3661 – up 20.4%), ahead of BMW (2814 – up 27.7%) and Audi (2215 – up 22.4%).

In the first half of this year Mercedes is up 19.2 per cent (17,889 sales), while BMW is up 16.1 per cent (12,602) and Audi is up 17.4 per cent – 1259 sales behind BMW on 11,343.

Drilling further down, Audi's A3 (586) outsold the Benz A-Class (327) and BMW 1 Series (217), while the Merc B-Class (238) was ahead of the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer (141).

Benz C-Class sales surged by more than 175 per cent to 890 – more than the aging BMW 3 Series (367) and Audi A4 (175), which even the CLA (443) beat.

Similarly, the M-B E-Class (185) more than doubled the sales of its rivals, the BMW 5 Series (90) and Audi (83) -- even as a replacement approaches in 2016 – while the S-Class (19) again led the limo segment from the old 7 Series (7) and A8 (8).

Luxury SUV popularity continues to boom, with the Audi Q3 (327) topping the Mercedes GLA (274) and BMW X1 (124) in the compact class; Audi's Q5 (407 – up 40%) defeating BMW's X3 (540) and X4 (103) in the mid-size segment; and the Mercedes GL-Class (87) more than doubling the Range Rover (39) in the upper large category.

BMW's evergreen X5 remained the nation's top-selling luxury SUV overall (651 -- up 36%) over the similarly (large) sized Benz M-Class (351), but imminent arrivals of the first mid-size Benz SUV (GLC) and facelifted ML (GLE) should lift Merc's SUV fortunes.

June top-10 models:
Hyundai i30 – 5521
Toyota HiLux – 4281
Toyota Corolla – 4157
Mazda3 – 4127
Mitsubishi Triton -- 3526
Ford Ranger -- 3372
Holden Commodore -- 2772
Volkswagen Golf – 2682
Toyota Camry -- 2602
Mazda CX-5 -- 2512