Toyota unstoppable in new car sales race

TOYOTA has extended its lead over Holden in the contest for new vehicle sales dominance in 2004 - a year that will break more industry records following an unprecedented new car buying spree in November.

According to industry statistician VFACTS, Toyota now leads Holden by an unassailable margin of 20,701 vehicle sales, or 2.4 market share points, after total industry sales of 84,335 set a new record for November, up 8223 or a whole 10.8 per cent on the same boom month last year.

Year to date, total industry sales are running 5.3 per cent ahead of last year’s record sales, up 44,224 vehicles at 876,249.

Strong November sales all but guarantee another record year of new vehicle sales in 2004, with the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries continuing to forecast 960,000 sales this year.

Leading the increase are sport utility vehicles, which posted an 18.3% increase over last November (up 2365 vehicles), while heavy commercial vehicles were up 12.9% (293 sales), light trucks up 9.3% (1159 vehicles) and passenger cars up 9.1% (4406) month-on-month.

Within the passenger car category, most segments were also up in November, with the notable exception of luxury cars which experienced a 19.2% fall (down 599 vehicles) – although large cars also remained static with a month-on-month rise of just 144 cars (0.9% up), as did prestige cars with an increase of just 25 units (0.8%).

Compared with November 2003, people-movers were up a massive 93% ( or 700 cars), while sports cars were up 202 (27.8%), light cars were up 1183 (19.4%), small cars up 2377 (16.7%) and medium cars up 374 (9.7%).

SUVs had a patchy sales month, with medium SUVs experiencing the biggest growth (up 1951 or 52.2%) followed by SUV compact (up 544 or 9.3%), but both the large segment (down 38 units or -1.8%) and luxury segment (down 921 or -7.6%) failing to fire.

Of the light truck market, 4x4s, 4x2s and vans continued their boom while 2.5-tonne trucks were down 17 (-9.8%) and light buses were down by 3 (-2.2%).

Pickup cab chassis 4x4 was up 647 or 15.8% in November, with pickup cab chassis 4x4 up 469 or 7.4% and vans up 63 or 3.6%.

Year to date, with 541,312 sales passenger vehicles lie just 0.5% (2635 cars) ahead of the same point in 2003, with prestige cars continuing their boom (up 8333 or 32%), people-movers increasing by 3070 or 28.1%, light cars up 6825 (9.7%), medium cars up 2553 (6%) and small cars up 5652 (3.5%).

Continuing to fall in popularity year-on-year are sports cars (down 1454 or -15.3%), large cars (down 20,440 or 10.9%) and luxury cars (down 1904 or 6%).

Similarly, large SUVs are also down on last year by 1226 sales or -5.3%, while compact SUVs are narrowly up (by 638 or 0.9%), luxury SUVs are up 2020 or 18.8% and medium SUVs are up a big 20,062 or 58.5%.

With the exception of light buses, all light commercial vehicle segments are also up, led by pickup cab chassis 4x4 (up 7651 or 16.5%) and pickup cab chassis 4x2 (up 7851 or 12.1%).

In terms of vehicle brands, both Toyota and Holden have maintained the same industry share they held at the end of October (21.1% and 18.7% respectively), with Toyota increasing its share from 20.4% at the same time last year and Holden losing ground from 19.4%.

However, both makers posted a lower share in November compared with the same month last year (Toyota 20.8 v 21.1%, Holden 18.6 v 18.8%).

Ford was the biggest winner of the big four last month, recording its best November sales since 1989, with 12,023 vehicles being 2300 units or 23.6% up on November 2003. The result was aided largely by record monthly sales of Fiesta (458) and strong sales of Falcon Ute (1607), Territory (1912) and Courier 4x2, which put in its best result since 1982.

At 122,736, total Ford sales are up almost 7000 units on 2003 figures – the best result to this point since 1995. Ford gained a 14.3% share of the market in November to maintain its third-placed 14% year-to-date market share in 2004 – up from 13.9% last year.

Nissan has cemented its fourth-place ranking ahead of Mitsubishi in 2004, with 8.0% of the market in November for a YTD share of 6.6% (up from 6.4%), while Mitsubishi experienced a slightly stronger 6.3% November share for a YTD share of 5.9% (down from 8.0%).

Mazda lies around just 800 units adrift with a YTD market share of 5.8% (down one point from 5.9%) after a weaker 5.7% share on November, while Hyundai continues its success in seventh place with a 4.5% November and YTD share (up from 3.4% YTD 2003).

Honda and Subaru both posted a 3.5% market share result with around 2950 sales in November, though Honda maintains its 3.9% YTD share (up from 3.4%) and Subaru has 3.6% (up from 3.2%). With a month to go, Subaru has already sold more than 30,000 vehicles in Australia for the first time, with record November sales of Forester and Impreza helping the brand to grow sales by 20% over last November.

Kia fills out the top 10 makes scoreboard despite a reduced 2.1% share in November, giving it a 2.6% YTD share (up from 1.9%). The South Korean brand will banish a struggling Mercedes-Benz from the top 10 list this year following another poor sales month (down 218 month-on-month) in lacklustre sales year (down 1407 YTD).

Other brands to be down in a boom sales year include Alfa Romeo, Audi, Daewoo, Ferrari, Jaguar, Land Rover, MG Rover, Mini, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Saab and Volkswagen.

SEGMENT BY SEGMENT

Light cars:

ECHO remained the light car leader in November with 1829 sales (and a 25.1% share), ahead of Getz (1260, 17.3%), Barina (727, 10%), Rio (696, 9.6%) and Mazda2 (447,6.1%).

Echo remains the YTD leader too, with 16,230 sales and an even bigger segment share of 21.0%, followed by Getz (14,664, 19.0%), Rio (8585, 11.1%), Jazz (6840, 8.9%) and Barina (6705, 8.7%).

Small cars:

COROLLA is the perennial small-car king and remained so in October with 3219 sales and a share of 19.4%, followed by a stronger Pulsar (2989, 18%), Mazda3 (2182, 13.1%), Astra (2079, 12.5%) and Lancer (1177, 7.1%).

Corolla extended its YTD lead with 36,260 sales (but a reduced 21.9% share), ahead of Astra (23,042, 13.9%), Mazda3 (19,673, 11.9%), Pulsar (17,353, 10.5%), Lancer (12,410, 7.5%).

Medium cars:

MEDIUM cars is another Toyota stronghold, with Camry four-cylinder the dominant force (2123 sales, 50.3% share) ahead of Mazda6 (974, 23.1%), Liberty (605, 14.3%), Vectra 4cyl (156, 3.7%) and Sonata 4cyl (149, 3.5%).

It’s the same story YTD, with Camry 4-cyl (23,259, 51.4%) leading Mazda6 (11,291, 24.9%), Liberty (6509, 14.4%), Vectra (1352, 3.0%) and Scenic (984, 2.2%).

Large cars:

COMMODORE was again Australia’s most popular large car in October with 7301 sales for a share of 44.1%, ahead of a much stronger Falcon (5628, 34.0%), Camry V6 (1416, 8.6%), Magna (1351, 8.2%) and Avalon (459, 2.8%).

YTD figures show Commodore (73,132, 43.9%) leading Falcon (59,776, 35.9%), Magna (13,055, 7.8%), Camry V6 (12,607, 7.6%) and Avalon (5207, 3.1%).

People-movers:

IN the rejuvenated people-mover segment, Carnival stills leads with 397 October sales for a share of 27.2%. Second was the new Odyssey (344, 23.7%), followed by Tarago (281, 19.3%), Zafira (120, 8.3%) and Voyager (81, 5.6%).

YTD, it’s Carnival again (4818, 34.4%), over Tarago (2725, 19.5%), Odyssey (1864, 13.3%), Zafira (1258, 9.0%) and a dead heat between Avensis (876, 6.3%) and Voyager (879, 6.3%).

Sports cars:

MONARO found 283 new customers in October for a 30.5% market share, followed by Astra Convertible (163, 17.6%), 307 CC (83, 8.9%), Tiburon (82, 8.8%) and 206 CC (74, 8.0%).

Monaro remains YTD leader with 2432 sales and 30.2%, ahead of Astra Convertible (1329, 16.5%), 307 CC (688, 8.6%), Tiburon (653, 8.1%) and 206 CC (535, 6.7%).

Prestige cars:

HONDA’S popular Accord has firmly established itself as the prestige leader with 935 November sales for a segment share of 28.1%, followed by Maxima (619, 18.6%), Statesman (338, 10.2%), Mini Cooper (163, 4.9%) and A4 2.0 (155, 4.7%).

Accord leads YTD too with 11,804 sales and 34.4%, ahead of Maxima (4916, 14.3%) and Statesman (3363, 9.8%) but this time Fairlane (1919, 5.6%) and Vectra CDX (1908, 5.6%) rounding out the five.

Luxury cars:

BMW 3 Series remains head honcho in the overcrowded luxury segment with 494 sales in October and a share of 19.5%. Following it were C-class (334, 13.2%), E-class (186, 7.4%), CLK-class (149, 5.9%) and 5 Series (121, 4.8%).

Almost the same goes YTD, with 3 Series (4686, 15.7%) leading C-class (3863, 12.9%), E-class (2372, 7.9%), 5 Series (1854, 6.2%) and CLK-class (1836, 6.1%).

Compact SUVs:

IT’S Toyota again, this time with Rav4 (1117 October sales, 17.4% share). Second best seller was X-Trail (1050, 16.4%), ahead of Forester (1041, 16.3%), CR-V (673, 10.5%) and Outback (590, 9.2%).

YTD, RAV4 (12,134, 17.4%) remains king ahead of X-Trail (12,042, 17.3%), followed by Forester (11,054, 15.9%), CR-V (8078, 11.6%) and Outback (6203, 8.9%).

Medium SUVs:

TERRITORY (1912, 33.6%) was a clear winner here over Prado (1475, 25.9%), with Pajero (763, 13.4%) knocking off Kluger (661, 11.6%) for third ahead of a run-out Cherokee (132, 2.3%).

YTD, Prado has retained its lead with 15,311 sales and a share of 28.2%, ahead of Territory (11,399, 21.0%), Kluger (7059, 13.0%), Pajero (6497, 11.9%) and Adventra (2353, 4.3%).

Large SUV:

ONLY the three entrants here, with LandCruiser (1233, 60.3%) leading Patrol (759, 37.1%) and Explorer (53, 2.6%) in November and YTD: 12,720/57.6% versus 8546/38.7% and 832/3.8% respectively.

Luxury SUVs:

X5 remained top dog here in November with 250 sales and a share of 22.3%, followed by RX300 (210, 18.7%), X3 (152, 13.6%), Grand Cherokee (105, 9.4%) and M-class (81, 7.2%).

X5 is still the luxury SUV to beat, with YTD figures of 2961 and 23.2%, ahead of RX330 (2250, 17.6%), Grand Cherokee (1289, 10.1%), M-class (1135, 8.9%) and X3 (852, 6.7%) displacing Touareg for fifth.

Pick-up cab-chassis 4x2:

TWO-WHEEL drive utes were again the most popular light commercial vehicle segment, with Commodore ute (1755, 25.7%) leading Falcon ute (1607, 23.6%) by a lesser margin, ahead of HiLux 4x2 (1287, 18.9%), Rodeo 4x2 (1157, 17%) and Bravo 4x2 (369, 5.4%).

Commodore ute leads YTD too, with 18,896 sales and a share of 26%, followed by Falcon ute (18,429, 25.3%), HiLux 4x2 (12,911, 17.8%), Rodeo 4x2 (12,015, 16.5%) and Bravo 4x2 (3542, 4.9%).

Pick-up cab-chassis 4x4:

THE four-wheel drive ute segment saw HiLux 4x4 (1114, 23.5%) beat Navara 4x4 (897, 19%), Rodeo 4x4 (865, 18.3%), LandCruiser Cab-Chassis (581, 12.3%) and Triton 4x4 (330, 7.1%) defeating Courier 4x4 for fifth in November.

YTD, HiLux also leads with 13,261 sales and a share of 24.6%. Second is Rodeo 4x4 (9952, 18.4%), ahead of Navara 4x4 (9734, 18%), LandCruiser Cab-Chassis (6208, 11.5%) and Courier 4x4 (3776, 7%).