JUNE VFACTS: Market slumps another 10 per cent

UPDATE 03/07/2019 NOON: Official VFACTS figures just released confirm the Australian auto market was down 9.6 per cent in June, when 117,817 new vehicles were sold, and now lies 8.4 percent behind at the halfway point of 2019, with 554,466 sales.

Official VFACTS figures due for release by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) on Wednesday are expected to show Australia’s new-vehicle market slumped to a new last month.

According to preliminary sales estimates obtained by carsales.com.au, less than 118,000 new vehicles were registered last month – almost 10 per cent fewer than in June 2018, making it the biggest monthly sales decline so far this year.

Despite generous end-of-financial-year incentives and stronger economic indicators since the federal election in May, which have boosted the fortunes of some premium brands, the market appears headed for its lowest result since 2012 due to a range of factors including Victoria’s new luxury vehicle tax.

Once again Kia was the only top 10 brand that sold more cars month on month in June, when passenger vehicle sales plummeted by 18.5 per cent, followed by light commercial vehicles (down by seven per cent) and even SUVs (-3.8%).

In fact, all sales segments declined in June, except upper large cars and SUVs (thanks largely to spikes in Chrysler 300 and Nissan Patrol sales respectively), and vans and buses – courtesy of the new Toyota HiAce.

Despite slower sales of all its other models (except for the C-HR and evergreen Prado), leading to an 8.5 per cent sales slide, Toyota continued to lead the way with more than 21,000 sales and HiLux remained the nation’s top-seller with almost 5500 sales in June.

Mazda sales flopped by more than 13 per cent as registrations of the more expensive new Mazda3 sagged by almost a quarter, making the CX-5 its most popular model and still the country’s favourite SUV.

But its 10,800 sales was enough beat Hyundai, which was more than four per cent down despite increased demand for its Kona and Tucson SUVs, and the fact the i30 outsold the Corolla to be Australia’s top-selling car.

Mitsubishi sold more of almost all its SUV models to remain a clear fourth despite slumping as much as Mazda following slower sales of the Triton 4x4, which nevertheless remained a solid top-10 model and the third most popular ute.

Kia (+2%) surged into fifth place past Ford (-4.5%), whose Ranger was closer to HiLux following stronger 4x4 sales, after strong performances from its Sportage and Cerato, which was Australia’s third best selling car ahead of the Mazda3.

Rounding out the top 10 were Honda (-11%, despite being the second best monthly result in Honda Australia's 50-year history, following sales records for the HR-V and CR-V), Volkswagen (-8.5%), Nissan (-17%) and Holden.

Holden was down a huge 35 per cent in 10th with only about 4800 sales – narrowly ahead of Subaru -- thanks to the axing of the Spark, Barina and Astra sedan/wagon, and a 50 per cent plunge in Commodore sales, to just 550. To June this year, its sales are now 25 per cent down.

June 2019 top models:
Toyota Hilux – 5400
Ford Ranger – 4850
Hyundai i30 – 3350
Toyota Corolla – 3150
Mazda CX-5 – 2900
Kia Cerato – 2850
Mitsubishi Triton – 2700
Mazda3 – 2550
Toyota RAV4 – 2450
Toyota LandCruiser – 2360
* Sales estimates only

June 2019 top brands:
Toyota – 21,200
Mazda – 10,806
Hyundai – 10,001
Mitsubishi – 8891
Kia – 7200
Ford – 7155
Honda – 6232
Volkswagen – 5793
Nissan – 5514
Holden – 4817
* Sales estimates only