Toyota pulls away from the pack

For the first time ever, Toyota's total sales in one month exceeded total sales for Ford and Holden combined.

Toyota's milestone was the most significant occurrence for the month of October -- a month in which total passenger car sales were ahead of sales for October 2006, but the market share didn't reflect that.

The reason for that shift is due to almost 4000 extra units of SUV and nearly 2000 extra sales in the light commercial vehicle segments, for the year to date. These extra sales increased the total pie, so even with a larger passenger car slice, it's relatively smaller as a proportion of the whole.

Based on the October VFACTS results, the Australian new vehicle market remains on course for a record sales year that is expected to eclipse the 988,269 all-time record sales achieved in 2005.

Figures for 2007 so far indicate the industry will sell 1.046 million vehicles by the end of the year, although Toyota is of the opinion that an 11th-hour sales push could boost that figure to about 1.1 million.

No surprise that the leading overall performer for October was Toyota, which occupied top rung on the ladder whether it be passenger cars, sport utility vehicles or light trucks with a market share for the month of 22.4 per cent.

Other local manufacturers Holden (14.4 per cent) and Ford (10.4 per cent) came in second and third.

Star performer among the importers was Mazda, sitting comfortably in fourth position outright with 7.4 per cent, ahead of Mitsubishi at 6.2 per cent and Honda at 5.9 per cent.

The October sales more or less reflected the industry's year-to-date position where the order of ascension remains the same.

While October winners were rife in the marketplace, there were some losers. Counted predictably among these, when compared with October 2006, were the large car segment (although only down a minuscule 0.78 per cent), medium cars, which were down 2.4 per cent, vans (down 1.9 per cent) and large SUVs, which continued their downward slide with sales 43.3 per cent below October 2006.

Outstanding performances were recorded by the small and light car segments that bettered October 2006 by 8.3 per cent and 11.5 per cent respectively, while the overall SUV market strode forcefully along with major gains in the compact segment (up 34.7 per cent), the medium segment (up 42.7 per cent) and the luxury segment, which bettered October 2006 by 15.1 per cent.

In the workhorse market, the year-to-date -3.1 per cent downward dip in the 4x2 cab chassis segment was briefly reversed with a 17 per cent sales increase over October 2006. The 4x4 cab chassis segment on the other hand, continued strongly with October sales 19.1 per cent above October 2006, reflecting a year-to-date 23 per cent improvement over 2006.

To comment on this article click here