Record new car sales in October

AUSTRALIAN new car sales peaked again last month with a record 81,667 vehicles sold Down Under in October, according to official VFACTS sales figures.

Sports utility, light commercial and prestige vehicles were the big movers in a month that saw Ford’s Territory SUV find another 1716 new homes to claim one-third of all medium SUV sales.

October also saw the Alloytec V6-powered VZ Commodore claim almost half of large car sales (49.8 per cent), but the big car segment remains one of the few markets to struggle this year.

At 15,798 units in October, large car sales are down 2170 on October 2003 and down 20,584 year-on-year – falling from 34.8 per cent of the passenger car market to 30.7 at this time last year.

Remaining fairly static compared to October last year, total passenger vehicle sales rose by 110 units (0.2 per cent), due to sales increases in most passenger car segments – especially prestige, which posted 741 more sales than in last October and is now a massive 8308 sales ahead of 2003 YTD.

Declines in large, sports and luxury car sales have seen the passenger car market shrink by 1771 sales so far this year, however, for a total share of 61.7 per cent (down from 64.8 per cent in YTD October 2003).

Interestingly, in terms of market share, compact SUV sales have fared worst, slumping from 50.7 per cent of the SUV market at this time last year to 44 per cent this year. Subaru, with Outback and Forester, snared 25.7 per cent to be the most popular compact SUV brand as well as posting record October sales.

While large SUVs have also dropped, from 17.1 to 14 per cent, medium SUV sales – boosted by Territory - have boomed from 24.6 to 33.9 per cent of the SUV market so far in 2004, and SUVs now comprise 18.1 per cent of the total market (up from 16.5 per cent) after increasing by 1589 sales (12.9 per cent).

Light commercial vehicles, like SUVs, have boomed in 2004, posting an extra 486 sales this October (up 3.9 per cent) and an extra 15,051 sales so far this year for a market share of 17.3 per cent (up from 16.1 per cent YTD October 2003).

Toyota was again market leader in October with 16,964 sales for a monthly market share of 20.8 per cent, followed by Holden, which posted 16,340 sales and a 20 per cent market share for the first time this year, giving Toyota its narrowest share margin since July 2003.

However, the Japanese brand leads Holden by 18,833 vehicle sales so far in 2004, giving it a YTD market share of 21.1 per cent (up from 20.3 oper cent YTD October 2003) – up 2.4 share points on Holden’s 18.7 per cent (19.4 per cent last year) and Ford, which claimed 10,560 sales – its best October since 1998 - or 12.9 per cent of car sales in October.

Despite total year-to-date sales of 110,713 units (the Blue Oval’s best result to this point since 1995), Ford retains the same 14 per cent YTD share it did at October last year.

Light cars:

ECHO remained the light car leader in October with 1535 sales (and a 21.9% share), ahead of Getz (1096, 15.6%), Barina (871, 12.4%), Jazz (846, 12.1%) and Rio (698, 10%).

Echo remains the YTD leader too, with 14,401 sales and a segment share of 20.6%, followed by Getz (13,404, 19.2%), Rio (7899, 11.3%), Jazz (6267, 9.0%) and Barina (5978, 8.5%).

Small cars:

COROLLA is the perennial small car king and remained so in October with 3679 sales and a share of 21.7%, followed by Pulsar (2716, 16.1%), Astra (2213, 13.1%), Mazda3 (1888, 11.2%) and Elantra (1116, 6.6%).

Corolla extended its YTD lead with 33,041 sales and a 22.1% share, ahead of Astra (20,963, 14%), Mazda3 (17,491, 11.7%), Pulsar (14,364, 9.6%), Lancer (11,233, 7.5%), Elantra (10,973, 7.3%) and Focus (10,676, 7.2%).

Medium cars:

MEDIUM cars is another Toyota stronghold, with Camry four-cylinder the dominant force (2472 sales, 56.9% share) ahead of Mazda6 (735, 16.9%), Liberty (657, 15.1%), Scenic (167, 3.8%) and Vectra (165, 3.8%).

It’s the same story YTD, with Camry 4-cyl (21,136, 51.5%) leading Mazda6 (10,317, 25.1%), Liberty (5904, 14.4%), Vectra (1196, 2.9%) and Scenic (857, 2.1%).

Large cars:

COMMODORE was again Australia’s most popular large car in October with 7869 sales for a share of 49.8%, ahead of Falcon (4512, 28.6%), Magna (1742, 11%), Camry V6 (1082, 6.8%) and Avalon (375, 2.4%).

The YTD result mirrors this, with Commodore (65,831, 43.9%) leading Falcon (54,148, 36.1%), Magna (11,704, 7.8%), Camry V6 (11,191, 7.5%) and Avalon (4748, 3.2%).

People-movers:

NEW life has been breathed into the people-mover segment, but Carnival stills leads with 409 October sales for a share of 31.6%.

Second was Tarago (249, 19.2%), followed by the new Odyssey (232, 17.9%), Voyager (108, 8.2%) and Zafira (79, 6.1%), with Grandis (54, 4.2%) seventh behind Trajet (59, 4.6%). YTD, it’s Carnival (4421, 35.3%), Tarago (2444, 19.5%), Odyssey (1520, 12.1%), Zafira (1138, 9.1%) and a dead heat between Avensis (799, 6.4%) and Voyager (798, 6.4%).

Sports cars:

MONARO found 321 new customers in October for a 34.3% market share, followed by Astra Convertible (163, 17.4%), Tiburon (93, 9.9%), 307 CC (72, 7.7%) and 206 CC (66, 7%).

Monaro remains YTD leader with 2149 sales and 30.2%, ahead of Astra Convertible (1166, 16.4%), 307 CC (605, 8.5%), Tiburon (571, 8%) and 206 CC (461, 6.5%).

Luxury cars:

IN the overcrowded luxury segment, 3 Series remains head honcho with 453 sales in October and a share of 17.7%.

Following it were C-class (389, 15.2%), E-class (183, 7.1%), CLK-class (157, 6.1%) and 5 Series (135, 5.3%). Almost the same goes YTD, with 3 Series (4192, 15.3%) leading C-class (3529, 12.9%), E-class (2186, 8%), 5 Series (1733, 6.3%) and CLK-class (1687, 6.2%).

Compact SUVs:

IT’S Toyota again, this time with Rav4 (997 October sales, 17.6% share).

Second best seller was X-Trail (991, 17.5%), ahead of Forester (987, 17.5%), Outback (464, 8.2%) and CR-V (414, 7.3%).

Rav4 holds a slender YTD lead with 11,017 sales and a 17.4% share – the same as X-Trail (10,992), followed by Forester (10,013, 15.9%), CR-V (7405, 11.7%) and Outback (5613, 8.9%).

Medium SUVs:

TERRITORY (1716, 33.3%) was a clear winner here over Prado (1353, 26.2%), with Kluger (613, 11.9%) third from Pajero (496, 9.6%) and a dead-heat between Discovery and Sorento, both with 151 sales and a share of 2.9%.

YTD, Prado looks like maintaining its edge with 13,836 sales and a share of 28.4%, ahead of Territory (9487, 19.5%), Kluger (6398, 13.1%), Pajero (5734, 11.8%) and Adventra (2242, 4.6%).

Large SUV:

ONLY the three entrants here, with LandCruiser (988, 52.1%) leading Patrol (852, 44.9%) and Explorer (56, 3%) in October and YTD: 11,487/57.3% versus 7787/38.8% and 779/3.9% respectively.

Luxury SUVs:

X5 remained top dog here in October with 352 sales and a share of 29.4%, followed by RX300 (209, 17.5%), the new X3 (161, 13.5%), Grand Cherokee (106, 8.9%) and M-class (83, 6.9%).

X5 is still the luxury SUV to beat, with YTD figures showing it has 2711 sales to its name for a share of 23.3%, ahead of RX330 (2040, 17.5%), Grand Cherokee (1184, 10.2%), M-class (1062, 9.1%) and Touareg (747, 6.4%).

Pick-up Cab-Chassis 4x2:

TWO-WHEEL drive utes were again the most popular light commercial vehicle segment, with Commodore ute (1805, 28.7%) leading Falcon ute (1407, 22.3%), HiLux 4x2 (1129, 17.9%), Rodeo 4x2 (989, 15.7%) and Bravo 4x2 (370, 5.9%).

Commodore ute leads YTD too, with 17,141 sales and a share of 26%, followed by Falcon ute (16,822, 25.5%), HiLux 4x2 (11,624, 17.6%), Rodeo 4x2 (10,858, 16.5%) and Bravo 4x2 (3173, 4.8%).

Pick-up Cab-chassis 4x4:

THE four-wheel drive ute segment saw HiLux 4x4 (1220, 26.6%) beat Navara 4x4 (849, 18.5%), Rodeo 4x4 (737, 16%), LandCruiser Cab-Chassis (542, 11.8%) and Courier 4x4 (356, 7.8%) in October.

YTD, HiLux also leads with 12,147 sales and a share of 24.6%. Second is Rodeo 4x4 (9087, 18.4%), ahead of Navara 4x4 (8837, 17.9%), LandCruiser Cab-Chassis (5627, 11.4%) and Courier 4x4 (3459, 7%).

Top 10 makes:

Pos	Make	Oct sales	YTD sales	YTD (%)	2003 YTD (%)
1	Toyota	16,964	167,185	21.1	20.3
2	Holden	16,340	148,352	18.7	19.4
3	Ford	10,560	110,713	14.0	14.0
4	Nissan	6580	51,473	6.5	6.4
5	Mitsubishi	5011	46,586	5.9	8.1
6	Mazda	4115	46,272	5.8	5.9
7	Hyundai	3471	35,425	4.5	3.4
8	Honda	2897	30,910	3.9	3.3
9	Subaru	2867	28,438	3.6	3.2
10	Kia	1909	20,668	2.6	1.9