VFACTS: Toyota takes top two sales spots

TOYOTA has taken out the top two places in Australia’s new-car sales race in April, with the Corolla small car and HiLux work ute finding more buyers than any other vehicle on sale.

With 3504 sales, Toyota’s Corolla small hatchback and sedan were easily Australia’s best-selling car in April. Toyota’s HiLux trade ute, meanwhile, recorded an equally strong month, posting 2932 sales and pushing March’s best-seller, the Mazda3 hatch and sedan, down to third spot with 2842 sales.

“Toyota dealers continue to report strong demand for (the Corolla and HiLux), which is encouraging as we enter what is traditionally our two strongest months of the year,” Toyota Australia executive director of sales and marketing Matthew Callachor said.

Ford’s Territory was the only locally made car to make significant inroads on the Australian market, but sales of its Falcon slumped to new lows, the latest sales figures show.

The gloomy news for local producers comes as the market bounced almost eight per cent compared with April last year, and full importer Mazda lost more ground to local car-maker Holden but held on to second spot behind Toyota in the overall sales race.

VFACTS sales data for the month of April, released today, shows the Territory was able to increase sales by more than 17 per cent compared with the same month last year, with 1206 of the large soft-roaders rolling out of Ford showrooms.

Meanwhile, the Falcon large car slumped to just 717 sales, an almost 30 per cent fall compared with April last year.

The news was not good for other locally-made brands, either. Toyota’s mid-size Camry held its own, raising monthly sales by less than one per cent in a market that fell more than four per cent compared with April last year, to 1617, but the Aurion continued to feel the pinch in the large-car segment, falling more than 25 per cent to 469.

Holden’s Commodore dropped outside the list of the top 10 best-selling cars for the second month in a row, with only 1515 new registrations recorded for April. This is more than 32 per cent down on sales for the same month last year.

From top: Mazda 3, Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon, Toyota HiLux and Mazda CX-5.

Holden director of product launch communications, Craig Cheetham, told GoAuto that stocks of the Commodore had almost run out as the large car hit its final month of production.

“...The runout of VE has been extremely successful, and remaining supplies of the previous model are now extremely limited,” Mr Cheetham said.

The car-maker is due to introduce its redesigned VF Commodore to Australian showrooms next month.

Sales of the smaller Holden Cruze, meanwhile, fell one per cent to 2290 compared with the same month last year. This is despite the car-maker launching a mildly worked-over refresh of the range earlier this year.

Mr Cheetham said Cruze sales in April included a mix of old and facelifted versions.

Despite the small drop, the Cruze rose in the rankings to place fourth, displacing Hyundai’s still-new i30 small hatchback, which fell to 2150 sales.

Nissan’s Navara work ute continues to sell well as Australia’s appetite for vehicles that work during the week and play on the weekends grows. It posted 1953 sales to place it in sixth spot slightly ahead of Ford’s new Ranger ute, which posted 1683 sales.

Ford’s Focus small car lifted itself to appear in eighth spot with 1670 sales, while Holden’s sharp pricing on Captiva 5 and 7 helped the nameplate into ninth spot with 1640 sales.

Toyota’s Camry mid-size four-cylinder and hybrid sedan rounded out the top 10 with 1617 sales.

The losers this month include Mazda’s CX-5, which fell just outside the top 10 with only 1510 sales after ranking in the top eight in March, and Holden and Subaru, which both lost market share for the month despite six per cent growth in the passenger car market..

Market winners for the month include Mitsubishi, which outsold Nissan with a 6.4 per cent share of the Australian market compared with the latter’s 6.0 per cent stake, and Toyota, which increased its share of the Australian market to almost 20 per cent.

Mitsubishi’s strong result came partially thanks to higher than expected sales of its new Mirage city car, with 859 units moving out the door during the month.

Buyers showed more interest in passenger cars during April, with sales rising 6.1 per cent for the month. However, our passion for soft-roaders continues to grow, with the segment rising more than 11 per cent over the previous month.

Most of the growth in passenger car sales was for petrol-powered vehicles, while business and government buyers showed a big interest in LPG vehicles, which rose significantly compared with the same month last year.

VFACTS recorded 421 sales of LPG vehicles in April, almost twice as many as April last year – the lion’s share of which went to government and business fleets.

Sales of electric cars remain a trickle, with only 14 sold for the month – eight of them to private buyers – while hybrid passenger cars are finding more favour with private buyers than with businesses and government.

Overall, the new-car market is up 7.6 per cent compared with the same month last year, however, the market is only 5.6 per cent ahead of where it was in the first four months of last year. However, if the current trend continues, the market will jump to a record-breaking 1,132,000 sales.

VFACTS sales April 2013:

Brand	Sales	Movement %
Toyota	16,902	2.0
Holden	7994	-10.3
Mazda	7833	1.1
Hyundai	7315	4.5
Ford	6828	3.8
Mitsubishi	5456	8.1
Nissan	5104	17.9
Volkswagen	5484	7.1
Honda	3168	65.4
Subaru	2553	-3.4

Top 10 Sellers for April:

Toyota Corolla	3504
Toyota HiLux	2932
Mazda3	2842
Holden Cruze	2290
Hyundai i30	2150
Nissan Navara	1953
Ford Ranger	1683
Ford Focus	1670
Holden Captiva	1640
Toyota Camry	1617