VFACTS for January: Queensland floods dampen new-car demand

New-car sales fell back by 1.7 per cent last month, in the aftermath of massive floods in South East Queensland.

Compared with the figure for the same month last year, sales of 73,584 in January represented a 1280 shortfall. Yet the peak body for the industry, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, has greeted the result with enthusiasm.

FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar described the January result as "robust" and "a good start to 2011".

"It is encouraging to see that private buyers remained confident throughout January with sales to those customers up 13.6 per cent while business purchases declined," he said.

There was no hiding the fact that Queenslanders had a lot on the plate last month. If not for the nearly 2000-unit shortfall in the northern state, January would have been a stronger month nationally than the same month a year earlier. According to the FCAI sales in Queensland were 12.8 per cent lower.

"Obviously new vehicle sales in Queensland have taken a hit as people concentrate on the flood recovery effort," McKellar said.

"We can expect sales in Queensland to be slower in the short-term but will pick up in the months ahead as people begin to look for replacement vehicles."

Times may have been bleak in Queensland last month, but they would have been breaking out the champers at Toyota's head office. For the third consecutive month Corolla snared top spot in the country -- outselling Holden's 15-year champion, the Commodore. For the full year of 2010, Commodore finished 4324 units (45,956) ahead of Corolla (41,632). Last month the small Toyota posted a winning margin of 1400 units, selling 4045 cars versus 2645 of the Commodore.

A margin like that would hand Corolla sales leadership for the full year around July or August, assuming the Commodore doesn't bounce back.

"We supported Corolla strongly with advertising and marketing offers, just as our competitors did with their leading cars," Toyota Australia's senior executive director sales and marketing, David Buttner, was quoted as saying.

"Consumers have responded in such large numbers because Corolla is the right package for Australians of all ages -- stylish, affordable, fuel-efficient and reliable."

It's an indication that Toyota is set for another strong year in 2011, just like the last one... and the one before that... and...

Of the 73,584 vehicles sold in January, 43,539 were passenger cars, 17,032 were SUVs and 11,720 were light commercial vehicles. Passenger cars were just 41 units down on January 2010 and SUVs were actually up 132 units -- although not a single SUV of any kind sold better than four digits. The Prado came closest, selling 988 for the month. But the real damage to the whole market was done in light commercial vehicles: down 1089 sales for the month. Heavy commercials also dropped over 300 units for the month, contributing to the 1280-unit slump.

The top ten car companies as of the end of January are: Toyota (14,817), Holden (8385), Mazda (7200), Ford (6413), Hyundai (6410), Nissan (4876), Mitsubishi (4537), Subaru (3531), Volkswagen (2408) and Honda (2227). Holden, Ford and Honda all dropped back against their January 2010 performances. In Ford's case, not only was it overtaken by Mazda for the month, it sold just three cars more than Hyundai. Honda is in danger of dropping out of the top ten, with Suzuki a little over a hundred units behind for the month -- and Suzuki is not a brand that holds the door open for others. January is a little early in the year to be prognosticating though, with fleet buyers and sales people still holidaying.

The top ten-selling cars for the month were: Toyota Corolla (4045), Mazda3 (3605), Holden Commodore (2645), Toyota Hilux (2491), Hyundai Getz (2167), Holden Cruze (2060), Nissan Navara (1804), Toyota Yaris (1793), Subaru Impreza (1765), Hyundai i30 (1675). Ford's Falcon -- usually a top five contender -- didn't appear among the top ten at all in January, selling just 1157 for the month, fewer than half the number it sold in January 2010. If the Falcon had sold the same numbers as it did this time last year, Ford wouldn't have fallen out of third place among the top ten car companies.

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