Still on track for 1 million new-car sales

New-car sales slowed in July but Australians are still on track to buy more than 1 million vehicles this year -- only the third time we will eclipse the magic million mark.

As predicted, the start to the second half of the year saw a dramatic drop in sales compared to the boom in June, down by 24 per cent.

However, the month of July 2010 was up 9 per cent compared with July 2009 -- and the average market growth so far this year is 15 per cent.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries forecasts the Australian new-car market may reach 1.046 million sales by the end of the year.

The Holden Commodore (26,908) is still Australia's biggest selling car so far this year, and has widened the gap between it and the Toyota HiLux utility (24,494).

After previously being within less than 1000 sales of each other earlier in the year, the Commodore (pictured) is now more than 2400 sales ahead of the HiLux.

Meanwhile the Mazda3 (23,299) is comfortably in third spot ahead of the Toyota Corolla (22,502).

But the Commodore's main rival, the Ford Falcon (18,342), is selling at a lower rate than the Hyundai i30 small hatch (19,130) so far this year.

Indeed, Holden has sold almost as many imported Cruze sedans (16,582) as Ford has sold Falcons. And, adding pressure to Ford's local manufacturing operations, the Korean-made Holden Captiva (9584) has consistently outsold the Ford Territory (6847) so far this year.

All segments of the market were up but 4WDs and softroaders were the biggest improvers -- up by a staggering 30 per cent for the year.

If you exclude heavy vehicles and commercial vans, four-wheel-drives and soft-roaders now account for one-third of new passenger vehicle sales.

Sales of compact softroaders such as the Subaru Forester grew by 34 per cent while sales of medium-sized softroaders such as the Toyota Kluger grew by 30 per cent. Luxury 4WDs are up by 17 per cent for the year.

Light cars such as the Toyota Yaris and Hyundai Getz are up 17 per cent, while small cars such as the Mazda3 and Corolla are up by 18 per cent.

Luxury cars that cost more than $100,000 were up by 20 per cent -- and people movers were up by 23 per cent.

Even sports cars over $80,000 had a good month -- up by 19 per cent.

The only segment to be hit hard was large sedans such as the Holden Statesman and Caprice and Chrysler 300C -- down by 16 per cent.

The chief executive of the FCAI, Andrew McKellar, is cautious about breaking the 1 million mark.

He said elections usually slow the market. "I hope I'm wrong but we've had a long period of strong new car sales so it's possible there could be a dip at the end of the year."

However, the Reserve Bank's recent move to hold back an interest rate rise should improve consumer confidence.

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