VFACTS August: Sales impacted as FBT bites

Australian new-vehicle sales have slowed as buyers hold on to their cash while they wait to see if changes to the Fringe Benefits Tax are enacted.

According to preliminary figures obtained by motoring.com.au ahead of official VFACTS figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries at midday today, sales of six of the top 10 makes are down compared to August 2012, some of them dramatically.

Nissan sales have dipped by 26 per cent, Ford is down 20 per cent, Honda 14 per cent, Subaru 10 per cent, Holden six per cent and Toyota only 1 per cent.

In contrast, Mitsubishi is up 38 per cent, Mazda 27 per cent, Volkswagen four per cent and Hyundai one per cent.

Toyota was way out on top in August with 17,750 sales and remains a clear number one in the market. Holden was second, with Mazda third, Hyundai fourth and Ford fifth.

The rest of the top 10 was made up of Mitsubishi, Nissan, Volkswagen, Honda and Subaru.

Although sales were down only 2.2 per cent overall on the same month last year, it was the first monthly sales decline so far in 2013 and models with a traditionally larger business buyer base suffered the most.

The Mazda3 was the nation’s biggest selling vehicle in August with a solid 4188 sales, while the Toyota Corolla was second with 3682 but stays on top in year-to-date sales.

Toyota sold only 2886 HiLux utes last month – down from more than 4000 last August – and following in the top 10 were the Holden Commodore, Hyundai i30, Toyota Camry, Holden Cruze, Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV4 and Holden Colorado.

The new VF Commodore recorded 2800 sales, which was roughly lineball with its July results, while the Ford FG II Falcon sold 573 examples -- again roughly in line with its July result of 594 sales.

The variance from make to make of the impact of the buyer slow-down was reflective of their reliance on fleet sales. Toyota’s ability to hold up was in part due to a switch in focus to retail sales. For instance, it offered the locally-built Camry with drive-away pricing and low-interest deals.

The Rudd government’s FBT changes, which in effect make it more expensive for some workers to lease or salary sacrifice a vehicle, has been introduced in an attempt to compensate for the change from a carbon tax to an emissions trading scheme (ETS), which will cost the government tax dollars.

However, if a coalition government is elected this Saturday it has vowed to scrap the FBT changes and the carbon tax/ETS as well.

The FBT changes have been slammed by all facets of the automotive industry.

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