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NEWS
VFACTS for July: Market malaise continues
FCAI is talking up the market for last month, but volume-selling brands are strugglingThe Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has announced strong sales of 89,867 vehicles in July – just 0.4 per cent behind last year's record tally.
But it's not enough to make the year to date figure look good. With the 649,818 sales so far this year, the market is 14,128 vehicles (2.1 per cent) behind the same time last year. Spread across all brands a 2.1 per cent loss against a record year in 2013 wouldn't be so bad, but it's principally the downmarket, volume-selling brands that are worst affected.
Even Toyota, the number one seller in the country with the number one selling car – in the form of the Corolla – has seen a downturn of 947 fewer sales in July, and nearly 6000 fewer sales for the first seven months of 2014. In year to date terms Toyota is 4.8 per cent behind its sales for 2013 and its sales stalwart the HiLux 4x4 is 8.0 per cent down for the year (although it did pick up 258 additional sales for the month of July).
Toyota had reason to be pleased however, thanks to the Corolla topping the sales charts for the fifth consecutive month. For the year it is narrowly ahead of the Mazda3. Tony Cramb, executive director for sales and marketing at Toyota Australia, observed that the overall market remains near the record levels of 2013.
"All the signs are that the economy and consumer confidence are solid with no indications of a major upswing or a downturn of any significance," Cramb was quoted saying in a press release.
"Toyota is leading the sales charts for what is shaping up as the 12th consecutive year based on strong performances by Corolla and HiLux, as well as RAV4 enjoying its best year on record and Kluger stocks coming freely from the United States."
Most of the resilience in the market, however, is due to prestige brands and companies selling SUVs. According to Tony Weber, Chief Executive of the FCAI, SUV sales are up 12.7 per cent for July and 4.1 per cent for the year to date.
"In particular, small SUV sales increased 34.8 per cent, compared to sales in July 2013. Medium SUV sales were up 6.5 per cent and large SUV sales were up 8.8 per cent," Weber was quoted saying in a press release issued today.
"The popularity of the SUV has seen the segment increase its market share by 1.9 per cent, compared to the same year-to-date period in 2013. SUV sales accounted for 31.4 per cent of the January to July 2014 motor vehicle market, and 32.1 per cent of the market in the month of July 2014.
"Passenger and light commercial sales decreased 6.2 and 5.1 per cent, respectively, compared to July 2013 sales. Looking at year-to-date (YTD) figures, sales in these segments declined 4.6 and 5.3 per cent, respectively, compared to January to July 2013 sales figures."
Weber noted that government purchases had risen 6.4 per cent for the year to date, that increase coming jointly from passenger vehicles and SUVs. Sales to commercial fleets have declined by 8.4 per cent in the year to date.
As for the prestige brands, for the year to date, Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Lotus, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Rolls-Royce and Volvo are all selling more vehicles than last year.
In contrast, only Dodge, Fiat, Holden, Hyundai, Isuzu Ute, Jeep, Kia, Proton, Renault, Skoda and Volkswagen have sold more vehicles than last year, among the mainstream passenger/SUV/LCV brands.
Top selling brands for the year to date are: Toyota (117,591), Holden (65,763), Mazda (59,958), Hyundai (57,948), Ford (48,452), Nissan (38,606), Mitsubishi (37,718), Volkswagen (32,562), Subaru (23,161) and Honda (18,151). Holden, Hyundai and Volkswagen are the only three companies in the top 10 to have sold more cars than during the same period last year.
The 10 best selling cars during July were: Toyota Corolla (3800), Mazda3 (3421), Toyota Hilux (3140), Holden Commodore (2469), Hyundai i30 (2434), Ford Ranger (2023), Mazda CX-5 (1895), Toyota Camry (1805), Holden Cruze (1747) and Holden Colorado (1443).
And the 10 best selling cars for the year to date are: Toyota Corolla (25,966), Mazda3 (25,945), Toyota Hilux (22,300), Holden Commodore (18,824), Hyundai i30 (18,126), Ford Ranger (15,466), Mitsubishi Triton (13,039), Mazda CX-5 (12,901), Toyota Camry (11,923) and Holden Cruze (11,154).
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Written byKen Gratton
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