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The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries figures show the market to the end of July has risen by more than 82,000 units - 15 per cent ahead of 2009 to the same point - with SUVs leading with a 30 per cent growth rate.
So far this year the rental and private buyers had lead the increases, with rental fleets' order sheets up by about 98 per cent yeat-on-year. Last month's private buyer numbers were up by 20 per cent, just ahead of its YTD increase of just over 17 per cent, while there was a corresponding drop in July rental fleet purchases.
The Adelaide-built Commodore remains in top spot for July and the year so far, with almost every main segment recording sales growth for last month and the year so far. Both light and small car sales are up almost 18 per cent so far this year, although small car sales dipped a little last month; medium car sales improved markedly for July and the year overall.
Large cars kept ahead of last year's performance for the year so far but the upper-large segment fell behind YTD 2009, something Holden managing director Mike Devereux says is typical of the fluctuating LWB market.
"It's fairly stable and profitable for us, would I like to sell more Statesmans and Caprices? Absolutely, but it's still solid business for us," he says. Peoplemovers and sportscars also kept ahead of 2009 figures.
The year-to-date 2010 market of 613,544 vehicles is running ahead of the same period in 2009 by 15.6 per cent, with last month's figure of 82,376 ahead of the same month in 2009 by more than 7000 vehicles.
Devereux says the VE Commodore runout was on track and it did not appear that buyers were holding off for the VEII later this year. "We had a great month, the great thing is that it's five or six years old but it's still a good-looking vehicle that sells well."
"I'm happy with where we are in terms of the inventory and the way the dealers are selling the old model and then we'll ramp up with the new one here."
Devereux also says the dealers were excited about VEII, which he expects will change the way Australians use cars, but refused to be drawn on details of the new model.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Andrew McKellar says strong private sales traffic and SUV interest produced a solid July. "This is a very solid result for July with the start of the new financial year usually resulting in slower sales," he says.
"There is a proliferation of new models on the market at the moment that buyers are finding attractive, particularly in the SUV range," he says. The on-going SUV interest has Toyota revising its 2010 forecast beyond 200,000, giving the brand its seventh straight year beyond that tally.
Toyota divisional sales manager John Roca says the figures show the Australian market can again reach the one-million mark. "The market returned to six figures in the financial year ended June 30 - and sales in July were higher than the rate needed to repeat the effort for the calendar year," he says.
TOP 10 BRANDS July (YTD 2010)
Toyota 17,250 (124,720)
Holden 10,648 (79,305)
Ford 7375 (56,571)
Mazda 7374 (50,245)
Hyundai 6531 (48,902)
Mitsubishi 5029 (37,401)
Nissan 4646 (37,476)
Subaru 3253 (24,362)
Honda 3150 (25,355)
Volkswagen 2922 (22,228)
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