Small cars on demand

We collectively bought more than 82,000 vehicles last month, close enough to a 7 per cent rise over January 2007.

Looking at it another way, contracts on 213 vehicles were signed for each of the 25 selling days in the month. That's a record over last year, which in itself was a record over 2006.

Toyota remains king of the sales heap and the big movers were the small, medium and SUV sectors. Sales of large cars continued to plummet, which must be a worry to Ford as it prepares to launch its new Falcon.

Mitsubishi, which is pulling out of manufacturing here, finished a distant sixth in the sales race, with Honda and Mazda both outselling the former car giant. So, according the industry statistician facts, who were the winners?

Toyota's Yaris dominated the cheap and cheerful light market, with the Mazda2 and Honda Jazz also popular with buyers.

The hotly contested small car market continues to be a bloody battleground. Toyota's Corolla was streets ahead of its opposition but the real fight was for the crumbs, with the Mazda3, Ford Focus and Honda Civic all doing well.

The mid-sized market, which has been quiet, is picking up pace as buyers downsize. Most went for the Toyota Camry ahead of the Mazda6, with Subaru's Liberty a distant third.

The large car market was a disaster for the local players. The Commodore was the best seller but it, along with the Falcon, Mitsubishi 380, Honda Accord and Hyundai Grandeur, lost ground.

The star performer was Toyota's Aurion, which outsold the Falcon.

Of the rest of the new car fleet, Honda's Odyssey beat the cheaper Kia Carnival in the people mover market, while the big surprise was in the SUV sector where Honda's CR-V outsold the Subaru Forester, Toyota's RAV 4 and recently launched Nissan X-Trail.

The sales stats throw up some interesting facts and figures.

Private buyers are taking a big liking to diesel engines (sales are up 82 per cent but still a low volume), while vehicles running on LPG are out of favour (down 64 per cent). Hybrid models enjoyed 11 per cent growth.

And just to show how global the industry has become, last month we bought vehicles made in 23 countries. While most cars still come from Japan, there were models from the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.