VFACTS March: Holden sales continue to slide

VFACTS sales figures for March due to be released on Wednesday are expected to show that Holden's sales last month declined further during the company's final year of local manufacture.

It's understood that Holden's numbers in March were more than 1000 units down on March of 2016, allowing Mitsubishi to jump in front for the month. With Toyota, Mazda and Hyundai already ahead of Holden, Mitsubishi's sales pushed Holden to fifth place, one step further down in the rankings.

Holden at least retains a grip on fourth position for the year to date.

It's believed that the locally-manufactured Commodore remains Holden's best-selling model – by a significant margin. The Commodore, due to end production at Holden's Elizabeth plant before the end of the year, sold over 2000 cars last month, the only Holden-badged product to do so.

Sales figures for the first three months of 2017 place Toyota on top, just shy of 49,000 units, followed by Mazda with more than 30,000, Hyundai with more than 24,000 and Holden rounding out the top four at around 22,500.

Ford is less than 1700 sales behind Holden and Mitsubishi is breathing down the Blue Oval's neck – just three sales behind Ford for the entire year so far.

Another close race in the top 10 is the contest between Kia and Subaru, with just 112 sales separating the two in the struggle for ninth spot on the ladder.

What a difference a year makes. Toyota is now 4.4 per cent ahead of its year-to-date tally for the first three months of 2016, despite the company's plans to close its Altona plant before the end of the year. Mazda's sales have barely changed, but Hyundai has lost ground to the tune of 8.2 per cent.

Similarly, Holden's sales have dropped 10.7 per cent, Ford's are down 1.1 per cent – which is a decent performance from a company without a manufacturing plant supplying locally-built Falcon and Territory models in 2017. Nonetheless, Ford is understood to have sold a few hundred Territorys out of dealer stock last month.

Mitsubishi has picked up 1.2 per cent for the first three months of 2017, but Nissan has hit some turbulence, with sales down 13.3 per cent so far. Volkswagen is also down 5.8 per cent. Subaru's sales have risen by 8.4 per cent, but that's not enough to avoid being displaced from ninth by Kia, which has seen sales soar by 34.8 per cent.

Kia's success over the past year has also pushed Mercedes-Benz out of the top 10 for the first quarter of 2017.

It's anticipated the Toyota HiLux will take the crown as Australia's most popular vehicle in March, reportedly passing 4200 sales for the month. The HiLux is also the biggest-selling vehicle in the market for the first three months of the year, cementing its standing in 2016 when it was Australia's top-selling new vehicle bar none.