King Commodore boots Corolla off the throne

No one is surprised to learn that Holden's Commodore re-staked its claim on the title of best selling car in Australia during the month of July.

What is surprising is that Corolla's 'back-sliding' from the June figure wasn't that savage. The Toyota still sold 4460 units for the month. This changes the whole dynamics of the market if Toyota can retain that sort of traditional 'Falcon' position in the marketplace.

No longer is it a case of 'Commodore, Falcon and -- a long way back -- the rest'.

We think the July result is how the market will pan out in future, or at least until Ford can introduce the next Falcon -- and assuming that car proves to be as popular as Ford hopes.

Speaking of Ford, Falcon remained above 3000 units with a tally of 3186 for the month.

So top sellers in the passenger car class were Commodore, Corolla and Falcon, with a fairly even spread between the three of them. Mazda3 is close behind the Falcon on 2909 for the month.

Hovering around 2000 units were Toyota's bobsy twins, Camry (1990) and Aurion (1925).

Among the SUVs, Ford's Territory remained ahead of the pack with 1555 sales for the month. Two compact SUVs, the Honda CR-V (1233) and Toyota RAV4 (1169) were not all that far behind. Toyota also claimed fourth position in the class with the Prado's figure of 1076 units.

Toyota is also doing well with Hilux, in the LCV class. Total sales for 4x2 (1471) and 4x4 models (1829) were 3300 units. Falcon Ute is down but not out on 1176 sales. Nissan Navara, with just 4x4 sales, scored 1013 units for the month, ahead of the Holden Ute on 983.

The Australian market is still on track for a million units this calendar year, according to VFACTS figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).

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