VFACTS: Toyota on top as market cools

Toyota’s HiLux pick-up was Australia’s most popular new vehicle in July as Holden’s locally-built Commodore slipped out of the top 10 sellers.

Overall, Australia’s new vehicle sales market has cooled down after a record end of financial year in June.

According to figures obtained by motoring.com.au ahead of Thursday’s release of VFACTS numbers, sales came off around 30 per cent compared with June 2017 and were roughly equivalent with July 2016.

Toyota maintained its supremacy, claiming more than 20 per cent of the market.

Behind it in the top 10 for sales by brand in July came Mazda, Hyundai, Holden, Ford, Mitsubishi, Kia, Subaru, Nissan and Volkswagen.

In terms of vehicles types, SUVs and passenger vehicles continue to run neck and neck on sales, which means in the bigger picture SUVs are growing and passenger vehicles diminishing.  LCVs are holding station compared to 2016.

Toyota was well served by the HiLux, which has been consistently Australia’s biggest seller. It was followed by the Corolla small car in second-place, while the locally-built Camry and the RAV4 medium SUV were also in the top 10.

The Ford Ranger completed the rostrum in third and the Blue Oval has been crowing about the locally-developed pick-up’s performance, acclaiming its 21,638 sales in the first six months of 2017 as a record and the best in the Asia-Pacific region.

However, year-on-year in July, Ford’s results have slumped by more than nine per cent as models like the Fiesta and Focus continue to struggle and sales of the defunct Falcon and Territory dry up.

Mustang remains a star, claiming nearly 1000 sales in July to continue as Ford's second-best seller year-to-date.

Holden, which ceases local production in October, is also struggling with sales down nearly nine per cent compared to July 2016. Commodore sales are slowing, but disconcertingly for the Lion brand, it was the Colorado 4x4 pick-up that was down nearly 25 per cent.

The Commodore was Holden’s biggest-selling model in July, but only finished 12th on the sales list.

Having axed Micra, Pulsar and Altima in recent times, Nissan’s 20 per cent year-on-year dive was not unexpected, although a slump in Navara sales also contributed.

Volkswagen was down more than nine per cent to also be among the brands entering the new financial year slowly.

On the flipside, Subaru shot up more than 27 per cent compared to July 2016, because of big sales climbs for the latest Impreza and XV.

Kia climbed an impressive 20 per cent, thanks to solid rises across its Rio, Cerato and Picanto passenger vehicle model lines.

Mazda was also strong, riding big Mazda3 and CX-5 sales and a big kick-up in performance year-on-year by the carsales.com.au car of the year, the CX-9, compared to its predecessor.

Mitsubishi also rose, climbing more than 11 per cent based on better year-on-year sales of the ancient Lancer small car, ASX small SUV, Outlander medium SUV, Pajero 4x4 and Triton 4x4 pick-up.

Honda was another solid nine per cent-plus improver, although the figures showed the boost coming from the HR-V and CR-V SUVs rather than the new Civic, which is maintaining its sales rate compared with 12 months ago.

Top 10 makes: Toyota, Mazda, Hyundai, Holden, Ford, Mitsubishi, Kia, Subaru, Nissan and Volkswagen.

Top 10 models: Toyota HiLux, Toyota Corolla, Ford Ranger, Mazda3, Mazda CX-5, Hyundai i30, Toyota Camry, Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Tucson and Mitsubishi Triton.