Hyundai and VW notch record sales

IMPORTERS Hyundai and Volkswagen are believed to have notched record monthly sales in June as 2014’s new motor vehicle sales slide levelled out under a barrage of end-of-financial-year offers.

Official VFACTS figures out tomorrow are also expected to show that Holden sales soared to more than 12,000 vehicles as the local manufacturer scored its best monthly sales in three years.

The overall June market should come in at about 118,000 vehicles – similar to the corresponding month last year – helping to halt the decline that up until last month amounted to 2.9 per cent this year.

Preliminary sales figures seen by GoAuto show Toyota, Ford, Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Honda have all slipped compared to the same month last year in a hit-and-miss market in which some models and marques did well, while others slumped.

Korean company Hyundai cracked the 10,000-vehicle mark for the first time, selling a record 10,008 units in June and pipping its previous record of 9914 set in the same month last year.

Volkswagen enjoyed the biggest sales lift among the top 10 car companies in Australia, up an estimated 26 per cent in June sales, from 5220 in June last year to 6597 last month.

This smashes the previous VW record of 6446 units set in June 2012.

Holden was the only local manufacturer to make gains, with June sales up almost 18 per cent to 12,334 units, according to the unofficial figures.

This has helped second-placed Holden to close the gap a little on long-time market leader Toyota, whose sales dipped about 6.0 per cent to 20,800 vehicles last month.

Holden’s top-selling Commodore is said to have recorded 3158 sales in its best month since last October when the VF model was fresh on the market.

However, the Commodore – a one-time top-seller in Australia – is expected to be ranked only fifth among top-selling cars, with Toyota filling to the top two spots with its Corolla small car and HiLux ute, both of which achieved more than 4000 units in what is traditionally a big month for the Japanese brand.

In fact, four vehicles managed to top the impressive 4000 mark, with Mazda’s popular Mazda3 coming in third at about 4059 units and – for the first time in history – Mitsubishi’s Triton ute exceeding 4000 units.

The biggest loser among the major car companies appears to be Honda, with sales down more than 38 per cent, to about 3115 sales.

By comparison, Kia sales were up about 7.0 per cent to 3350 vehicles – the second best monthly sales tally in the company’s history. The record month for Kia was 3400 units in June 2012.

Despite Triton’s success under heavy discounting, Mitsubishi June sales were down 10.8 per cent, while Nissan fared worse, down about 12.5 per cent.

Consistent performer Mazda came fourth in the monthly sales rankings behind Toyota, Holden and Hyundai, with about 9374 sales – down 2.0 per cent.