VFACTS for February: Benz makes the top 10

Mercedes-Benz sold 3236 vehicles last month to lift its total for the first two months of 2016 to 6335 sales – enough to muscle its way into the VFACTS top 10 for the year to date.

It's a first for the prestige brand, and unexpected given sales of its total passenger-car sales have actually fallen during both January and February. Honda did narrowly outsell Benz – by 43 vehicles – but not enough to make up for January. It's the second consecutive month Honda has missed out on 10th position, after Kia pushed it aside in January.

SUVs boosted the results for Mercedes-Benz, with GLC (pictured) stumping up an extra 1100 sales from out of nowhere, and combined sales of GLE and GLE Coupe effectively doubling last year's sales of M-Class over the same period.

On the subject of last year, 2015 set a new record for new-car sales in Australia, but 2016 has got off to an even faster start, with the market picking up another 6000 additional sales in February for a grand total of over 180,000 units for the first two months.

That's over 8000 units more for the first two months of this year than the figure for January and February of 2015.

Total sales in February were 96,443 units, most of those extra sales coming from SUVs and light commercial vehicles. SUVs closed in on 37,000 units for the month, and light commercial vehicles rose by around 2000 units to roughly 17,500. Continuing a trend that has been apparent for some years, passenger car sales – under 40,000 units for February – have declined for the month as well as for the year to date.

All passenger car segments were down for the month, the sole exceptions being people movers and sports cars. Kia's Carnival accounted for most of the increase in the former, and the combination of Ford's stampeding Mustang, Mazda's ND-generation MX-5 and reintroduced Holden-badged Opel sporties lifted the latter.

SUVs continue to gain ground on passenger cars as Australia's favourite class of car.

"The 36,865 new SUV sales represents a 15.1 per cent increase on SUV sales in February 2015. The 17,486 light commercial vehicle sales are 12.8 per cent higher than February 2015 light commercial vehicle sales, and the 39,558 passenger car sales are 3 per cent lower than February 2015 passenger car sales," said Tony Weber, FCAI Chief Executive.

Another trend, the rise of prestige brands at the expense of volume sellers, is holding true for the German prestige brands, plus Jaguar, Land Rover and Lexus. Mainstream brands that have sold fewer cars for the first two months of this year include: Chrysler, Fiat, Holden, Hyundai, Jeep, Peugeot, Proton, SsangYong and Toyota.

Ford's stocks have been boosted by Mustang, Ranger, Everest and Mondeo, with Kuga and EcoSport also picking up added sales so far this year. The Aussie-built models continue to decline, as do Fiesta and Focus.

Most Holden models have posted lower sales numbers, other than the newly introduced Astra, Cascada and Insignia. Trax sold in higher numbers, as did Colorado 4x4 and Colorado 7, but the GM brand is down about 500 units for the month and around 2000 for the year.

Toyota's sales were only down around 50 units in February, but year-to-date sales are roughly 1300 behind 2015. The locally-manufactured cars – Camry and Aurion – have both lost ground, as has the Corolla, Kluger, all three hybrid models and the Yaris. Despite that, the Corolla was the best-selling car in the country for the month of February. The sales slump was arrested by sales of Fortuner and Prado.

"We are working harder and smarter than ever to improve all areas of our business, in particular listening more closely to our customer guests to ensure they receive an exceptional ownership experience," said Toyota's executive director sales and marketing, Tony Cramb.

"Toyota is also focused on producing ever-better vehicles such as the recently launched HiLux and Fortuner, the upcoming Prius and Corolla hybrid, and the dramatic turbo-powered C-HR that starred at this week's Geneva motor show and is due to arrive in Australia early next year."

Despite being outsold by Mercedes-Benz, Honda has actually lifted sales so far this year, overall, as have Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Subaru.

Top selling brands for the year to date are: Toyota (28,644), Mazda (20,221), Hyundai (14,702), Holden (14,164), Ford (12,160), Mitsubishi (11,688), Nissan (11,552), Volkswagen (9263), Subaru (6943) and Mercedes-Benz (6335). Toyota, Hyundai, Holden and Volkswagen have sold fewer cars for the year so far.

The top 10 cars for February were: Toyota Corolla (3455), Mazda3 (3354), Toyota HiLux (3261), Ford Ranger (2655), Hyundai i30 (2461), Holden Commodore (2331), Mitsubishi Triton (2165), Mazda CX-5 (2156), Hyundai Tucson (1849) and Volkswagen Golf (1752).

And the top 10 cars for 2016 so far are: Mazda3 (7076), Toyota Corolla (6213), Toyota Hilux (5602), Ford Ranger (5073), Hyundai i30 (4313), Hyundai Tucson (3914), Mazda CX-5 (3906), Holden Commodore (3573), Mitsubishi Triton (3364) and Volkswagen Golf (3251).