The Ottos: not the Oscars, nor even Car of the Year
Manufacturers' PR departments are in full spin mode highlighting their respective marques' performances as the 2006 sales stats are digested. CarPoint's Otto Insider has his own spin on the results - the Otto AwardsWords -- Otto Insider
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Ladies and Gentlemen... Forget about market share and thousands of units shifted, welcome to the first annual 'Ottos', the nation's online automotive night of nights where we reveal the 'real' sales success stories of the year just past.
Pull up a slab, grab an abacus, and set credulity to one side...
Possibly the female buyer revolt can be traced to the Sex in the City 'star' imported to do the spruiking. Does your mother/grandmother really want to drive a car associated with such dubious double entendres? (That's a rhetorical question.)
Maxima too, slunk off into the corner.
For the number crunchers, Nissan's total passenger sales amounted to 14,541. Thank goodness the tradies still love Navara, all 14,362 of them.
VW has been quietly creaming the market in 2006, with Golf still well above par, plenty of thrust from the new Jetta, and the previously passé Passat now reinvigorated with extra 'bigness.' Next target? Subaru...
Mind you there's still one major mountain to climb: best-selling model. Currently a little known nameplate from Holden holds a mere 10,300 unit lead over the Corolla. Now, if they could get a rear-drive V6 into the jigger, it'd be in with a chance.
Special Mention in Dispatches:
Holden Statesman/Caprice twins for shaking their booty like never before.
Special Mention in the Death notices: Ford LTD.
Note from Parent: A whopping 1699 XC90s; more than the passenger car total sold by Volvo in 2006.
From tiny city cars to the most luxurious of limousines, DERV was the driver and 15,790 passenger sales the result-- most of which were adorned with VW Golf TDI badges.
Torque was not cheap though: on a percentage basis the diesel premium was less on luxo barges than shopping trolleys. BMW bagged the most upmarket diesel buyers, market-wide, with 75 per cent more sales than Benz, the dowager of distillate distributors. Even Jaguars now sup from the oily cup.
Blame our booming economy if you will and our Cashed Up Bogans. For the record, Hyundai is only down 3.1 per cent across all segments but Kia's overall drop is a shuddering 17.9 per cent.
Guess who has an ace in the hole now? Hint: Kia Pregio 2005 sales: 3592; 2006 (2005-plated) sales 428. Toyota HiAce sales 2005: 6050; 2006 sales 8465.
Astons used to be fast, expensive and rare. Now they're just fast and (comparatively) not that expensive. You'll not search long to find 111 of the blighters clogging the avenues of Double Bay and Toorak where just about any old Johnny English can kerb exquisite 19-inch alloys twice daily.
With 91.4 per cent sales growth in 2006, Aston is truly 'Licensed to Spin'.
Special mention in dispatches: Volvo, with 83 per cent growth. Could be the lure of the Yamaha-sourced V8 or the new oiler in the XC90.
Special Mention in Dispatches: Saab 9-5, Suzuki Jimny and Ssangyong Musso. And while we're at it, The 'Six Feet Under' Award for services to Formaldehyde goes to 1405 Aussies who bought Jeep Wranglers (b. 1996) and 153 Land Rover Defenders (b. 1948).
The 'Code Blue' and the 'Bravery under fire' Joint Award
Vale MG Rover -- it won't be troubling the scorers ever again. Nor Daihatsu. Sharing the dishonourable discharge, the Oxygen Bandits of 2006 are Morgan and Maybach with sales down 50 per cent and 66.7 per cent respectively. Yet Morgan outsold Maybach two to one. Literally. Good show (not).
Special Mention in Dispatches: Roll-Royce for growing by 20 per cent to 12 deliveries (that's 12:1 over the Maybach, in case you were wondering).
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