VFACTS August: Market down – slightly

UPDATED Sep 5: Australia’s new-vehicle market was down again in August -- the fifth consecutive monthly sales decline -- and now lies 0.3 per cent or 2674 units behind the same point in 2017.

According to sales data obtained by motoring.com.au ahead of official VFACTS sales figures due on Wednesday (September 5), sales increases were notched up by 4x4 utes, small SUVs, medium SUVs, large SUVs and vans in August. However, all passenger car segments were down.

Last month's 1.5 per cent drop (around 1440 units) is a significant improvement from the 7.8 per cent sales slump in July – the largest monthly sales decline so far this year – when only small and upper-large SUVs posted sales lifts.

The biggest winners in August were small and large SUVs (up 12.5 and 11.7 per cent respectively), while large cars were the biggest losers – down more than 60 per cent.

And while Toyota continued on its merry way at the top of the sales charts (with 18,833 sales being up 1.7% on August 2017, representing a 19.8% market share), the biggest increase in the top ten brands was posted by second-placed Mazda (10,740, up 26.2%, 11.3% share).

Of the 'big' brands, the biggest loser was once again Holden, which tallied just 4356 sales (down 37.6% for a 4.6% share) to be trailed only by Subaru (3845, down 16%) in the list of top 10 brands by sales in August.

In between, third-placed Hyundai was up 2.6 per cent and fourth-placed Mitsubishi was up 6.3 per cent, fifth-placed Ford was down 10.3 per cent and sixth-placed Volkswagen was down 2.0 per cent, and seventh-placed Kia was up 2.5 per cent and eighth-placed Nissan was up 8.4 per cent.

Once again the Toyota HiLux was Australia’s top-selling new vehicle last month with 4275 sales, followed by the Ford Ranger (3515), Toyota Corolla (3033), Mazda3 (2959) and Mazda CX-5 (2599).

Toyota was also helped by more than 2000 Prado sales (up 79%), 1259 Kluger sales (up 21%) and 1684 RAV4 sales (up 4.9%), but Camry sales were down 24 per cent in August, placing it 13th overall, and now lie more than 35 per cent adrift year-to-date. Corolla was up 2.9 per cent but remains 3.3 per cent down YTD.

Mazda, meantime, posted a 26 per cent sales boom thanks to its M-Day campaign, which helped generate a 37 per cent increase in Mazda3 sales and a 27 per cent hike in CX-5 sales, while stronger CX-3 and BT-50 sales put both models in the top 20.

Stronger i30 sales saw it rank sixth overall and, with help from almost 2000 Tucson sales, helped Hyundai sell 8000 vehicles, while stronger Triton sales kept the Mitsubishi workhorse in the top 10 (one place behind Nissan’s X-TRAIL with 1912 sales – up almost 90 per cent).

In contrast, apart from a 10 per cent lift in Everest sales to 492, Ford’s only shining light was again the Ranger, while Holden’s top-selling model was also a ute (the Colorado, in 17th overall), followed by the Commodore, which posted another monthly sales rise, to 682.

Top 20 best-sellers in August:
Toyota HiLux – 4275
Ford Ranger – 3515
Toyota Corolla – 3033
Mazda3 – 2969
Mazda CX-5 – 2599
Hyundai i30 – 2323
Toyota Prado – 2019
Hyundai Tucson – 1998
Nissan X-TRAIL – 1912
Mitsubishi Triton – 1754
Mitsubishi Outlander – 1736
Toyota RAV4 – 1684
Toyota Camry -- 1604
Volkswagen Golf – 1554
Mitsubishi ASX – 1545
Kia Cerato – 1491
Isuzu D-MAX – 1461
Holden Colorado – 1439
Mazda CX-3 – 1387
Hyundai Accent – 1357