October VFACTS: Sales slide continues

VFACTS sales figures for October are projected to show a continuing sales decline in passenger cars, according to information received by carsales.

And with year-on-year sales growth for SUVs unable to counter the downward spiral of passenger-car sales – and light commercial vehicle sales stagnating – the collective market for passenger, light commercial and sports utility vehicles in October is anticipated to have fallen by over 5000 units.

The total market for October '18 is expected to be around 87,000 sales, not including heavy commercial vehicles. That's around 4000 fewer than September. Yet despite the downturn in October the market still looks likely to finish the year above a million sales.

Last month's passenger-vehicle sales are projected to be over 8000 units behind the October 2017 figure of 36,396 units. That equates to a 22 per cent reduction.

Nearly 2500 of those lost sales define the gulf between Holden's final month of local production this time a year ago and the performance of last month's fully-imported line-up. The problem for Holden isn't isolated to the Commodore. Both SUVs and LCVs underachieved for Holden during October. Astra and the new Acadia (pictured) were reportedly the only Holden models that sold in larger numbers than they or their predecessors managed the year before – and Holden didn't have an Acadia equivalent at this time last year.

For the blue/red tribalists, Ford narrowly outsold Holden during October, despite the blue oval's own sales numbers falling by over 400 units. Honda lost 800 or so sales in October and Hyundai sold nearly 1400 fewer cars than during October 2017. Even worse for the Korean brand, passenger-car sales were further off the mark than Holden's, at nearly 2200 down. Most of those were sales of the i30 small hatch.

Mazda, Mitsubishi and Kia are the only companies to sell more last month than in October 2017.

For monthly sales, Toyota continues to lead the way with nearly 18,000 for the month. Mazda remained in second place, followed by Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Ford, Holden, Volkswagen, Kia, Subaru and Nissan.

Official VFACTS figures for October will likely reveal the Toyota HiLux to be Australia's best-selling vehicle for the month when they're released on Monday of next week.