Locals in the lurch: VFACTS for April

A record-setting month of sales helped Mazda to overtake another local manufacturer in the market. That, (selling 7681 vehicles for the month) was icing on the cake for the full-line importer, after Mazda posted a best ever first quarter result.

Mazda's market share grab (now up to 9.7 per cent) is due to the sales spurt from the CX-5 SUV, which sold 1413 units for the month, versus 586 units of CX-7 sold in April 2011.

“I believe that the appeal of Mazda vehicles can be attributed to four key characteristics: function, innovation, style and value, ” said Mazda MD, Doug Dickson. “April’s result shows that these characteristics are present across the whole Mazda range. While it’s very pleasing to see our products holding such appeal, we won’t be resting on our laurels as we strive to provide the best customer service possible and develop even better products.”

Holden, which fell behind Mazda for the month, blamed stock shortages of Colorado and Barina. The GM brand's market share for the month was just under Mazda's, at 9.6 per cent. At 7589 vehicles sold for the month, Holden was less than a hundred units behind the importer, on 7681.

“The light commercial segment is a key market for Holden, and Colorado has been traditionally one of our most important models. We’ve had a very successful run-out, with only a handful of cars available in March and April,” said John Elsworth, Holden's Holden Executive Director of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales. 

“We’re really pleased with the response to our next-generation Colorado dealer roadshow with a significant number of customer pre-orders ahead of its June launch.

“The new generation Barina hatch and sedan has really hit a sweet spot in the market and we anticipate increase in supply around mid-year.

“Overall with these stock shortages, April was a tough month for Holden but we’re confident we’ll report stronger results in line with demand in the months to come.”

The starving elephant in the room, for Holden, is the Commodore. Selling just 2248 units for the month, it's over 800 behind the figure for April last year and, if Ute figures are included also, the locally-built large car is very nearly 3600 units behind year to date sales for 2011. Cruze outsold Commodore in April and is just 76 units behind the large car in year-to-date sales. The prospect of the small car overtaking the Commodore in sales next month looks very strong.

Over at Ford the Falcon continues to bump along at historically low levels, but the monthly setback of 448 units (1009 sold in April) was offset by the additional 477 units of Territory sold (1076 for the month). The good news for Ford was that the monthly total was just 159 units behind the figure for April 2011. In contrast, Holden was 1524 units behind, year on year. But in year to date sales, Holden is posting better figures than Ford and the decline from 2011 is only 2094 for Holden, versus 2626 for Ford.

Toyota had the top-selling vehicle for the month, with the HiLux selling 3565 units. It was a strong result for a vehicle that is well past its mid life and the generally considered to be at a disadvantage up against newer pick-ups in the market. According to Toyota the HiLux result is a sign that the company's supply lines are back to normal, following the tsunami in Japan a year ago and the floods in Thailand (where the HiLux is built) in the latter half of last year.

"Consumers rate HiLux above any other vehicle for its off-roading capability and other attributes, including performance, lifestyle and value," said Matthew Callachor, Toyota's executive director of sales and marketing.

"Almost one in two HiLux buyers already own a Toyota while more than half say they are likely to choose another Toyota for their next vehicle," he said.

In both monthly and year-to-date tallies, Toyota is alone among the three local manufacturers in posting an improvement on last year — admittedly without supply constrained by natural disasters in 2012. The majority of Toyota's products were selling ahead of last year's monthly and YTD figures. Expect percentage increases to go through the roof from next month, when sales compare favourably with the same period last year, during the tsunami-affected factory downtime.

Total vehicles sold for the month of April numbered 79,097, which was a 6.6 per cent increase on last April's total. While sales lifted for the month, it wasn't through any fault of passenger vehicles, which sold 1036 units fewer (40,496 versus 41,532 for April 2011). All the growth came from SUVs and LCVs. At 21,841 SUVs sold for the month, that class of vehicle registered a 27.8 per cent increase, year on year. The gain in LCVs (7.4 per cent) wasn't as stark, but still lifted sales from 13,473 in April 2011 to 14,468 last month.

Year to date, the market has reached 339,219 vehicles sold, an improvement of 5.1 per cent over the same period last year. Based on that figure, seasonally adjusted, the market should exceed a million sales in 2012 (around 1.066 million, says the FCAI).

Top selling brands for the year to date are: Toyota (63,943), Holden (36,534), Mazda (34,194), Hyundai (28,748), Ford (26,552), Nissan (24,583), Mitsubishi (19,487), Volkswagen (15,781), Subaru (13,437) and Kia (9,509).

The best selling cars during the month of April were: Toyota Hilux (3565), Mazda3 (3005), Toyota Corolla (2573), Holden Cruze (2315), Holden Commodore (2248), Hyundai i30 (2147), Toyota Prado (1725), Toyota Camry (1602), Nissan Navara (1590), Mitsubishi Triton (1482).

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...