VFACTS for January: Mazda3 tops sales!

A five-year old car due to be replaced in coming months has proved itself Australia's most popular car during January. With 3124 cars sold for the month, the Mazda3 outsold its traditional rival, the Toyota Corolla (2763), as well as the Holden Commodore large car (3059) and total combined sales of 4x2 and 4x4 Toyota HiLux pick-up (2620) to take top spot.

Based on the buyer-type split for the market, the Mazda appears to have benefited from a situation whereby fewer private buyers of passenger cars (-14.5 per cent) dropped out of the market than business buyers (19.3 per cent) -- and private buyers accounted for 26,481 units of the 41,309-strong pool of passenger car sales in January.

Not only did the Mazda beat every other car in the market for sales during January, it even improved on its sales result for January 2008 -- when times were much happier.

Mazda's local managing director, Doug Dickson admitted that the January result for the '3' was in line with previous sales figures last year and in 2007, but that in itself is an outstanding achievement in the market.

"This is a fantastic result for the Mazda3 sedan and hatch range, though I think the market came to Mazda in January," he said.

"Mazda3 averaged 3,131 retails in January 2007... so in that context the 2009 result is nothing out of the ordinary.

"Of course, it's pleasing to see that consumers have continued to vote for Mazda and for the Mazda3 in these challenging economic times. I think that's a reflection of the innate value, reliability and enjoyment that Mazda injects into every car in our range."

Mazda's small car making a giant leap was just one of the startling results in the VFACTS sales figures for January. Audi finished the month ahead of January 2008, relying on a strong performance from new models, the A4, A5 and A3 Convertible -- the A4 outselling its predecessor, the A5 fielding new variants to boost its appeal and the folding-roof A3 finding sales volume where none had previously existed. So Audi continues on its record-setting ways, even out-selling BMW and Mercedes-Benz in January.

Along with most other companies, Holden had a dreadful month, but the company would have to be happy with Captiva taking the title of top medium SUV, selling in larger numbers last month than in January 2008 (1141 vs. 1038). That would almost certainly be due to keen pricing and a model mix of front- and four-wheel drive, petrol and diesel variants.

Honda's Accord and Accord Euro have both fared well, outstripping January '08 figures for their predecessors by a substantial margin. And the Jazz, not only picked up extra volume year-on-year (1480 vs. 1395), but nearly unseated Yaris (1565 units) from the throne of top-selling light car.

Hyundai performed admirably across its range. Fleet sales from out of nowhere and pushing by sales staff helped increase year-on-year sales volume for the Getz, i30, iLoad, iMax and Tucson.

Among the others, Mitsubishi's Lancer picked up an extra couple of hundred sales (1625 vs. 1410), Nissan's Micra scored an extra hundred (658 vs. 553), and Peugeot's 308 remains well ahead of the 307 it replaced. 

The new-car market, based on the VFACTS figures, looks like it's in disarray, but there's more there than meets the eye, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).

In the big picture, the figures show an 18.5 per cent sales slump for the month, accounting for a total of 67,079 vehicles sold against 82,270 units in January 2008.

According to the FCAI's press release, the year-on-year comparison is based on a seasonally-adjusted high point for January sales last year, so the comparison is based on (presumably) a worst-case scenario versus a best-case scenario 12 months earlier. In other words, it's not wise to draw too many conclusions from this month's figures.

"This is a not an unexpected result given the broadening impact of the global financial crisis now being felt across the Australian economy," FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar added.

"Australian new vehicle sales have actually held up well by comparison with sales in many other countries."

Furthermore, industry insiders have informed the Carsales Network that many car companies and dealers were bringing forward registrations during the final months of 2008 to improve the overall picture. As a consequence of that, while the cars may have been sold in January, to VFACTs statisticians the transactions are 'invisible'.

Also, as we reported earlier this month (more here /news/2009/where-the-markets-headed-in-09-11297), the car companies have, in many cases, cancelled forward orders and reduced stock levels, potentially leaving some of them without the inventory to meet the demands of all customers. This too could have a bearing on the lower sales for January '09.

In light of these considerations, the market probably won't begin to settle down to a level that can be properly analysed until next month or March.

Broken down, the market surrendered 7969 passenger vehicles, relative to January '08, a percentage reduction of 16.2 per cent. SUVs were down 4228 units, a 23.9 per cent reduction, and light trucks sold 2342 units fewer than 12 months ago -- 17.8 per cent less. By class, all segments contributed to the overall shortfall for passenger cars, SUVs and light trucks.

Toyota was the top-selling company in January (13,427 units), with Holden next on 8762, Mazda (6532) ahead of Ford (6020), and Honda (5013) ahead of Mitsubishi (4090). Nissan (3761), Hyundai (3701), Subaru (3025) and Volkswagen (2129) rounded out the top 10.