VFACTS for October: Market powers towards another record

VFACTS figures published today have revealed the local market is nearly 33,000 sales ahead of last year's figure for the year to date.

That figure, 957,153, not only places the industry potentially ahead of last year's final tally of 1,113,224 by year's end, but it should also topple the previous record set in 2013: 1,136,227 new vehicles sold.

A strong performance in October has boosted the year to date figure by a further 3000 units, most of which are the result of an SUV class that's on fire. For the year to date, SUVs have picked up over 46,000 additional sales, and during October everyone's favourite family-car class has grown by nearly 6000 units.

That's a good thing for the industry, because passenger cars have slid backwards by over 13,000 units, and light commercial vehicle sales are basically stagnant – something like 60 units in total down on last year's figure for the first 10 months.

Across all classes, the year to date figure is above 957,000 sales and the monthly figure is over 94,000. Even based on a highly conservative number of 90,000 sales for each of the last two months of this year, the market will top the 2013 record. The share of market going to new SUV buyers continues to grow, while passenger cars remain in decline. That rate of change for both classes actually accelerated during October.

Toyota's HiLux was the top-selling vehicle in Australia during October, narrowly outselling its small-car stablemate, the Corolla. The HiLux is riding a particularly strong wave of popularity at the moment, having been launched just last month. Both Toyotas sold over 3000 units for the month, and the Corolla was fully 600 units ahead of the third-placed Hyundai i30. Ford's Ranger, selling nearly 2600 vehicles during October, was just ahead of the Mazda3. Ranger is officially Ford's most popular model in Australia, and the only model to break into five figures for the year to date. Sales of the 4x4 variants alone have outstripped combined sales of the locally-manufactured Territory and Falcon – including the Falcon Ute.

Corolla remains the most popular vehicle for the year to date, and has an unassailable lead over the Mazda3 – exceeding 3000 units.

Toyota remains in the lead for overall sales with Mazda in second place. But Hyundai, remaining in third place for the year, sold over 9000 units during October to be the second most popular brand for the month.

"I'm proud to say that in one of the most competitive marketplaces in the world Hyundai Motor Company Australia has claimed an impressive second place outright in the October sales rankings," said company CEO, John Elsworth. "We're also still well on track for a strong podium finish in this year's sales race.

"Our product range is strong, and our cutting-edge cars with benchmark equipment levels and unique customer care programmes are being embraced by an ever-increasing number of Australian new-car buyers."

Top selling brands for October were: Toyota (16,964), Hyundai (9003), Mazda (8532), Holden (8088), Ford (6098), Nissan (5961), Mitsubishi (5508), Volkswagen (4480), Subaru (4112) and Honda (3261). Toyota, Holden, Ford and Nissan have sold fewer cars for the year to date in 2015.

The 10 best selling cars during October were: Toyota HiLux (3339), Toyota Corolla (3271), Hyundai i30 (2669), Ford Ranger (2597), Mazda3 (2582), Holden Commodore (2243), Toyota Camry (2141), Mazda CX-5 (2037), Volkswagen Golf (1705) and Toyota RAV4 (1685).