New-car market booms in June

Australians bought more new vehicles last month than in any previous June, according to preliminary sales figures obtained today by motoring.com.au.

Official VFACTS sales data will be released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries at noon tomorrow (July 4), but indicative figures show the total market grew by 16.4 per cent last month to an all-time monthly sales record of 111,892 vehicles.

June is traditionally a strong month for new-vehicle sales as buyers snap up end-of-financial-year offers, and Australia’s previous all-time monthly sales record of 108,722 was set in June 2010.

Toyota sold 21,651 vehicles last month – some 73 per cent more than it did in June 2011, when the Japanese giant’s supply lines slowed to a trickle following the crippling March earthquake and tsunami.

With HiLux stocks now also restored following Thailand’s worst flooding in 50 years, Toyota sold more than 4300 of the light trucks last month, making the HiLux Australia’s most popular vehicle – bar none – for the third month in a row.

Toyota’s second-biggest seller was the Corolla, with 3804 sales, but that wasn’t enough to displace the Mazda3 as Australia’s top-selling passenger vehicle in June, with Mazda’s evergreen small car attracting 3924 buyers, helping the second-biggest Japanese brand to an 11.2 per cent sales increase, at 9593 sales.

In between, second-placed Holden had month it would rather forget, with just 10,632 sales representing a 17.1 per cent sale slide. The Commodore – Australia’s favourite new car for 15 years until it was displaced by the Mazda3 late last year – was comprehensively outsold by the Cruze, 2743 sales to 3057.

While the Cruze was fourth, the Commodore slipped to sixth place on the list of top-selling nameplates for the first time. Sales of Holden’s new Colorado were also slow in the absence of free supply, with less than 900 sales shaded by even Isuzu’s closely related new D-Max. Isuzu Ute sales were up a big 88.6 per cent in June, to 911.

Of course, that’s still more buyers than Ford’s Falcon attracted, but the big Blue Oval sedan did post its best sales result (1431) since last November – as did the Falcon ute, with 619. Ford said Falcon sales were up across the board, with the new EcoLPi LPG and EcoBoost turbo-four models accounting for just 21 per cent of the mix.

Ford’s homegrown Territory did even better, notching up its highest monthly sales figure since June 2007, with 1800 examples helping Ford to total sales of 9140 – up 1402 from May – and Ford’s best locally manufactured vehicles sales since November 2011, at 3850 sales. While the Territory again eclipsed the Falcon to be Australia’s 10th best selling model in June, Mazda’s new CX-5 was again Australia’s top-selling SUV – and the ninth most popular vehicle overall - with 1955 sales.

Focus sales remained strong at 1571 ahead of the new Thai-sourced model, while the Fiesta attracted more buyers since September last year with 1056 sales, but the new Ranger found some 1783 homes. That’s its best result in two years, but Ford expects sales to continue to increase as availability from Thailand improves over coming months.

While Ford sales were down a narrow 0.8 per cent to 9140, Australia’s third local manufacturer retained fourth overall ahead of Nissan, which is believed to have posted its best sales month since ceasing local car-making two decades ago.

Nissan sold 8427 vehicles in June, thanks in no small part to the brand’s volume-selling Navara, which notched up some 3037 sales to slip into the nation’s top-five monthly seller’s list last month for the first time.

Hyundai declined to share its latest sales data with other car companies this month, as is customary on the first business day of each month, but Nissan is believed to have further closed the gap to the Korean brand in terms of year-to-date sales, after finishing 32.2 per cent up in June.

Other notable June sales performances were posted by Volkswagen - whose Golf achieved around 2500 sales to finish seventh overall for the month, helping the German brand sell more than 6000 vehicles for the first time in a month - as well as Subaru, which experienced a 36.6 per cent sales spike, Kia (up 24.7 per cent) and Lexus, which was up 51.9 per with free post-tsunami supplies.

Stop Press: Since this article was written, VFACTS figures have been released. The total market for the month rose 17.1 per cent, year on year, to 112,566 vehicles. All classes saw an increase during the month over June 2011. For the year to date sales have climbed to 547,854 - a 10.4 per cent improvement over the same period last year.

Top ten selling makes for the year to date are Toyota (106,035), Holden (56,183), Mazda (52,133), Hyundai (45,306), Ford (43,430), Nissan (39,879), Mitsubishi (31,139), Volkswagen (26,966), Subaru (21,341) and Honda (16,153). Of those, only Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Volkswagen and Subaru have posted sales numbers ahead of the same period last year.

Top ten selling cars for the month were: Toyota Hilux (4308), Mazda3 (3924), Toyota Corolla (3804), Holden Cruze (3057), Nissan Navara (3034), Hyundai i30 (3024), Volkswagen Golf (2746), Holden Commodore (2743), Toyota Camry (2303), Mitsubishi Triton (2186). 34 distinct models sold in four-digit numbers during the month.

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