VFACTS predicts a million unit year

The leap year contributed 58.3 extra new vehicle sales -- or 1.7 per cent -- to VFACTS figures for February, in a month that is running six per cent ahead of year-to-date figures compared to 2011.

Leap year or not, 2012 is off to a strong start, with February sales of 85,723 vehicles comparing with 80,896 in 2011 (the figure nevertheless represents a seasonally adjusted 2.7 per cent decrease compared to last month).

The passenger car market copped a sales boost of 591 sales, or 1.3 per cent over February 2011, but this was attributable to medium (7,205 sales or 19.8 per cent up), small (19,723 sales or 2.2 per cent up) and light cars (10,880 sales or 1.5 per cent up), not the large and upper large cars which were down to 5,263 sales (24.3 per cent decrease), and 206 sales (29.7 per cent) respectively.

The SUV segment once again was up: to 23,448 sales compared with 18,943 in February 2011 – a 23.8 per cent increase and indicative of the continuing strong presence of this well-represented segment.

Again, Toyota, with 14,849 sales, was the biggest winner for the month, ahead of Holden (9,688 sales) in second place. Mazda, with 8,689 sales continued its winning ways in third place ahead of Hyundai, Ford and Nissan. Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, Subaru and Kia made up the top ten for the month.

Mazda was the most impressive performer with its best-ever February result, due to strong performances from the outright best-selling Mazda3 and the segment-leading Mazda2. The Mazda6 (546 sales) and BT-50 ute -- which had its best monthly sales in two years with 1,071 sold -- added to the company’s fortunes.

Holden held on to second spot by virtue of record sales from its Captiva (1,328 sales) and Cruze (2,880 sales), while Commodore, at 2,991 sales, shared second spot with the Toyota Corolla behind the small car segment-leading Mazda3 (3,733 sales).

February 2012 was also a good month for Korean importer Hyundai, which recorded its best-ever February sales since it opened up shop here in 1986.

Star performers were the new Veloster coupe and the iLoad commercial van, while it also did well with its i20 and Accent models achieving a combined second spot in the light car segment -- and the i30 and Elantra scoring a combined third in the small car segment.

Subaru, although down year-todate in February, did manage a strong performance for the month with its new XV crossover (pictured) which, with 1005 sales,  made up almost 30 per cent of the company’s 3,225 total sales.

Year-to-date figures at this early stage see a maintenance of the monthly order. Toyota’s volume is down on comparable 2011 figures, as is Ford’s and Subaru’s, while Holden scraped in to maintain parity with its 2011 year-to-date sales.

Also in year-to-date sales, German importer Volkswagen, was up 1,968 sales, continuing its rise on the ladder, as does Korean importer Kia, which was up 694 over 2011 year-to-date sales.

With sale running better than five per cent ahead of 2011, current projections by VFACTS indicate a total market of 1.039 million vehicles in 2012.

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