SUV and tradie vehicles boost car sales

Toyota's HiLux topped the sales charts with 4010 sales for August, ahead of the Mazda3's 2990 tally and the Toyota Corolla finished the month in third with 2945 sales.

Toyota Australia's sales and marketing executive director Matthew Callachor said it was HiLux's fifth consecutive month as Australia's most popular nameplate.

“The popularity of HiLux is a testament to its unbreakable reputation and also a market shift to what you might describe as dual-role vehicles - those that serve motorist's needs both at work and at play,” he said.

The locally-built brigade was led by the Holden Cruze making up for a horrible July with 2628 August sales, ahead of its Commodore stablemate's 2435 and the Toyota Camry's August tally of 2130.

Sales director Philip Brook said Holden's moves to increase the appeal of its line-up were paying dividends. “Captiva continues to be a winner for us and we're pleased to see it excel in the highly competitive and fast-moving SUV market,” he said.

“Last month, we responded to an increasingly competitive market with a 0.5 per cent finance offer on a range of Holden vehicles, which was a great success with customers,” he said. Having dipped in July, Ford's Falcon bounced back into four-figures with 1353 sold, just pipped by its Territory sibling on 1357.

Mazda Australia managing director Doug Dickson said August's result demonstrated the brand's appeal. “Further product developments, including the arrival of the all-new Mazda6, will help ensure we continue to deliver the stylish, insightful and spirited products that the market wants,” he said.

Official VFACTS industry sales figures released yesterday show the new vehicle market up 6.2 per cent in August (compared to the same month last year) and 9.4 per cent ahead in year-to-date (YTD) terms, despite a drop-off in government fleet purchases.

The government numbers were down 22 per cent in August and remain almost 10 per cent below 2011 levels in year-to-date terms. In overall terms, the Sport Utility Vehicle market is more than 46,000 units (or 30 per cent) ahead of the 2011 tally to the same point, while light-commercial vehicles are 8.3 per cent ahead.

Passenger car sales continue to tread water in YTD terms - up by 1.2 per cent for the year so far - but down 3.7 per cent for August to 46,612 (down 1811 vehicle sales) over the same month last year. 

The Sports Utility Market totalled 26,216 - up by 4105 vehicle sales or 18.6 percent, with the Light Commercial segment up by just over 19 per cent (or 2896 vehicle sales); Heavy Commercial sales were up 11.7 per cent over August 2011. The year-to-date market tally stands at 728,047 vehicles - ahead 62,738 sales or 9.4 per cent over the same period in 2011.

WINNER

Sentimentally we're happy to see Honda's numbers back in black after being in the sales doldrums for a while post-natural disaster - a big August (3842 units) pushed the Japanese brand ahead of its 2011 YTD tally to end the month on 22,864, up by 5.6 per cent.

LOSER

Mitsubishi aren't exactly setting the world on fire at the moment and its Australian boss admits as much. Down 6.5 per cent in a market that's up 9.6 per cent, with an ageing range that doesn't epitomise value for money, present issues for the Japanese brand, which will need the updated Lancer and ASX to quickly get solid traction in the market.