New-car sales hit the brakes | exclusive

New-car sales hit a speed bump in April: it was the worst monthly result in two years and the biggest slump since a Japanese tsunami wiped out vehicle supply in June 2011.

Official figures due to be released on Monday show new-car deliveries are down for the fourth month in a row -- by 5.2 per cent compared with the same month last year, to 80,710 deliveries -- dragging the market down by 3.1 per cent year-to-date to a tally of 347,080.

April is historically the weakest month for new-car sales because of the school holidays, but even taking this into account it was tough going.

Market leader Toyota had its lowest sales result in four months and only three of the Top 10 brands posted gains.

Holden was among those to record an increase in April -- albeit by just 16 cars compared with the same month last year -- along with Hyundai and Subaru.

The homegrown Holden Commodore continued its dramatic surge -- up 61 per cent after last year’s record lows -- with its 10th month in a row of sales growth.

But the Commodore’s recovery is not enough to reverse the decision to end local production in 2017.

The Commodore’s tally of 2443 deliveries in April is respectable in the current environment -- it was the fourth best-seller -- but the result is still less than one-third of its monthly sales rate of a decade ago.

It was enough, however, to return Holden to second place overall after being relegated to third place by Mazda for the first three months of this year.

The sustained market slowdown is further evidence most of the big brands “pushed” cars onto the market last year to reach ambitious sales targets, and reported vehicles as “sold” even though they had not been bought by anyone other than the dealer.

They are dubbed “cyber” cars because they’re reported as sold in “cyber space” -- on the car industry’s computer data -- but are in fact not yet sold to a paying customer.

Cyber cars eventually get sold in the months after they are reported, and are not counted twice. But the industry choked on them in the second half of last year as everyone seemed to have the same idea.

“The market is still digesting cyber cars, the sales figures should become a more accurate reflection of the market by the middle of the year,” said a senior car company executive who asked not to be named.

This partly explains why Nissan is still down by a staggering 35 per cent in the first four months of this year, closely followed by Honda (down 33 per cent) and Mitsubishi (down 12 per cent).

Meanwhile, the Toyota Corolla was Australia’s most popular car for the second month in a row but the Mazda3 still leads the year-to-date tally after Mazda sold an unusually high number of “demonstrator” models.

One-third of all Mazda3s sold in January and February were so-called “dealer demonstrators” -- more than four times the industry average, which is 7 per cent.

Mazda Australia boss Martin Benders said the sales push was a “one-off”, and 1000 of the 4500 demo models were of the new generation Mazda3, normal practice at the start of a car’s life.

Sedans again proved to be passé, with deliveries of the Toyota Aurion V6 down by 33 per cent for the month, while the Camry was down by 23 per cent and the Ford Falcon down by 9 per cent.

Sales of small cars were down by 8.2 per cent for the month as buyers continued their migration to compact SUVs, whose sales were up by 47.5 per cent compared to the same month last year.

Buoyed by low interest rates, buyers treated themselves to a record number of luxury vehicles. Porsche was the biggest improver for the month (up 53 per cent), followed by Jeep (up 31 per cent), Mercedes-Benz (up 26 per cent), Land Rover (up 19 per cent), Audi (up 18 per cent), and BMW (up 10 per cent).

Top 10 cars in April 2014
Toyota Corolla 3315 -- down 5.4 per cent
Mazda3 3057 -- up 7.6 per cent
Toyota HiLux 2572 -- down 12.2 per cent
Holden Commodore 2443 -- up 61.3 per cent
Hyundai i30 2271 -- up 5.6 per cent
Ford Ranger 2094 -- up 24.2 per cent
Toyota Prado 1622 -- up 27.1 per cent
Toyota RAV4 1548 -- up 16.4 per cent
Mazda CX-5 1543 -- up 2.2 per cent
Holden Cruze 1468 -- down 35.9 per cent

Top 10 car brands in April
Toyota 14,930 -- down 11.7 per cent
Holden 8010 -- up 0.2 per cent
Hyundai 7626 -- up 4.3 per cent
Mazda 7000 -- down 10.6 per cent
Ford 6449 -- down 5.6 per cent
Mitsubishi 4360 -- down 20.1 per cent
Nissan 4157 -- down 18.6 per cent
Volkswagen 4019 -- down 12.3 per cent
Subaru 2903 -- up 13.7 per cent
Honda 2352 -- down 25.8 per cent

* Percentage changes compared with same month last year

Source: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries