VFACTS for March: Passenger Vehicles hold back SUVs, commercials

Are the Queensland and Victorian floods in the early part of this year still deterring new-car buyers? That's the clearest message from VFACTS figures for March.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries had little to offer in the way of analysis, other than the plain fact that sales for the month were softer.

93,984 new vehicles were during the month, a drop of 0.8 per cent, so not a huge decline, by any means.

"Notwithstanding slightly lower sales during the month, the demand for new vehicles is broadly consistent with other retail and consumer demand indicators," FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said.

The slight reduction in sales (0.8 per cent is not much of a fluctuation from one month to the next), indicates a gradual return of buyers to the new-car market -- a point McKellar makes.

"The reality is the overall level of new vehicle sales remains robust and remains well above one million units over the past 12 months."

Chances are strong that sales in April should show a sudden peak as insurers start to clear their backlog of claims for vehicles lost to the floods and cyclones. A wait of at least a month for a claim to be settled is not unusual. Claims for tool-of-trade vehicles are possibly being given priority over claims for passenger cars, which may explain why passenger-car sales are so far down this month, while SUVs and commercial vehicles have surged.

On the strength of the March figures, the market can still achieve one million units for the 2011 calendar year -- provided monthly sales remain at or above the same levels for the rest of the year. According to the FCAI, the current SAAR for the year to date is 1.02 million vehicles sold, which is calculated from a year-to-date market of 248,464 units -- down 3363 units or 1.3 per cent for the same period in 2010.

Passenger vehicles sold 50,228 for the month (down 6.5 per cent or 3489 units) and the category's sales for the year to date are 4.1 per cent behind (down 5904 units), at 139,222. So passenger vehicles are actually facing a harder climb back to the levels of 2010 since March than during the natural disaster-affected months of January and February.

In contrast, SUVs are ahead, by both monthly and year to date measures. For the first three months of 2011, SUVs have sold 59,014 units -- an increase of 2398 units or 2.2 per cent. In March, SUV sales reached 23,066, an improvement of 1423 vehicles or 6.6 per cent.

Light commercials are also picking up for the year to date and for the month of March. The YTD sales tally of 44,579 is ahead of the year-on-year figure by 967 vehicles, or 2.2 per cent. 18,273 LCVs were sold during March, gaining on the figure for March 2010 by 1547 sales or 9.2 per cent.

Despite the slower start to this year, some companies are reaping strong results. Audi has claimed top spot for prestige brands during the first quarter of this year. Selling 1034 units in March and 3070 for the quarter, the prestige brand is up 21.4 per cent and 15.0 per cent, respectively.

Ford's sales for March were ahead of the same time last year -- 5001 versus 4730... a difference of 271 units or 5.7 per cent. In year to date figures (13,313), the company is 502 units behind its tally for last year, but that's without E-Gas Falcon, without a Falcon wagon and with Territory in runout, not to mention the fact that the Queensland floods seemed to hurt Ford's sales worse than many car companies.

Notwithstanding the slow climb back for Falcon, there were some real bright spots for Ford in the month of March. Fiesta sold 1477 units for the month, nearly matching segment leader for the month, Mazda2. Ford was particularly ebullient at having overtaken long-time segment champs, the Toyota Yaris and the Hyundai Getz.

Focus is over 1000 units ahead of its year-to-date figure for 2010 and Mondeo continues to confound the pundits, selling 772 units for the month and 1961 units, year to date. Only one car stands in the way of segment leadership for Ford, but the Toyota Camry sold more than double the number of the runner-up last month, so the Mondeo has quite a lot of work ahead of it.

The Ranger 4x4 -- with a new model due out before the end of the year -- has practically doubled its YTD figure from last year, selling 2789 for the quarter and 1175 for the month.

Holden was content with Commodore back in number one position, having sold 4170 vehicles for the month and at 2804 units sold in March, the Cruze continues to do good business ahead of the introduction of the locally manufactured model near the end of the year.

Hyundai achieved some personal bests for its i20, i45 and ix35 models, but the iLoad (pictured) delivered arguably the strongest result, outselling Toyota's HiAce to take leadership in the van segment with 680 sales for the month.

Mazda posted a new record for sales during March, selling 8039 vehicles for the month -- 8.6 per cent share of the total market. The March result helped the company post a record first quarter result also. Mazda3 sold 3979 during March, 100 units more than its previous highest monthly figure.

Subaru has also achieved a new record for March sales, selling 3901 for the month. Impreza sales were 25.4 per cent up for the month (1336 cars sold), but a fairly staggering 66.6 per cent up for the quarter. Selling 1227 for the month, the Forester remains the highest-selling compact SUV for the year to date, but the RAV4 is just eight sales behind it and actually outsold the Subaru for the month. Liberty sales were up 18.9 per cent for the month.

The top ten selling car companies for the year to date were: Toyota (47,887), Holden (29,515), Mazda (22,883), Ford (22,713), Hyundai (20,143), Nissan (18,258), Mitsubishi (15,311), Subaru (10,731), Volkswagen (8758) and Honda (7446). Toyota, Holden, Hyundai and Honda have sold fewer cars for the first quarter than for the same period last year.

The top ten selling cars for the month were: Holden Commodore (4170), Toyota Hilux (4028), Mazda3 (3979), Toyota Corolla (3067), Holden Cruze (2804), Nissan Navara (2575), Hyundai i30 (2376), Mitsubishi Triton (1978), Mitsubishi Lancer (1749), Ford Falcon (1719).

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