Car sales may hit million for 2011

As supply from Japan returns to something approaching normal, the industry sales figures released by VFACTS and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) for September show. A resurgent Corolla - with pent-up demand - took top spot last month ahead of the two Adelaide-built Holdens that filled the rest of the September passenger car sales podium.

The Commodore and Cruze were only split by Toyota's HiLux, which slotted into third place for overall vehicle sales totals, while the Mazda3 dropped off on the back the Mazda M-Day Sale bonanza the previous month.

Mazda3 and Commodore remain locked in a tight battle for overall supremacy for the year, with the Commodore back in front of the Mazda3 by just 539 units.

Both cars have been refreshed in time for the closing stages of the 2011 sales battle - Mazda3 has had the first of its SKYACTIV bits added to give it a boost but Holden's new LPG system won't arrive in time to return fire.

Among the segments being watched by industry pundits will be the medium-car segment, sales of which is now closing in on the once-dominant large car market. One of the key cars in the medium segment will be the new Camry, which has been slowed by industrial action at Toyota's Altona plant.

Toyota's sales and marketing senior executive director David Buttner said the industrial action had not greatly delayed Camry's changeover to the new model, expected in November.

"At this stage there's no further industrial action planned, there's a secret ballot and that result will be known next Monday."We haven't had to change many dates, we've only pushed wholesale out by one week, at this stage we're pretty well on track," he said.

WINNER(S)

Hyundai topped 65,000 units YTD last month and is up almost six per cent for the year, with new Accent, Elantra and i20, i40 and i45 all well ahead.

Sibling brand Kia has again waltzed into the top 10 for the month - the third time for the year - and so far this year has sold 19,025 - up 4.6 per cent in a market that's still down 3.7 per cent overall. The bulk of the car maker's range is up and about - the Carnival peoplemover, Cerato small car, the Sorento and Sportage SUVs are all among the better performers.

LOSER(S)

The Chrysler brand is doing it tough - so far this year the Chrysler brand is down 34.5 per cent (September was 66 per cent down); Dodge is less morose, thanks to a massive jump in Caliber, which sold 388 last month, up from 4 in the same month last year.

As a result, overall September for Dodge was up more than 170 per cent down on September 2010 and the year's tally about 64 per cent above its performance last year.

The real shining light for the US group is Jeep's 32 per cent increase YTD over 2010, led by the new Grand Cherokee's charge into the luxury SUV segment.