Toyota pulls out the whip on 2010 sales

MARKET leader Toyota is bolting for the 2010 sales finishing line, offering drive-away deals, special editions and 2.9 per cent finance on several of its mainstream models as it pushes well above 200,000 sales for the seventh consecutive year.

And it has promised the deals will not disappear with the old calendar year, with a “fast-start” sales program in readiness for January 2011.

Toyota, the only car company in Australia to ever achieve 200,000 units, believes it passed the “double ton” early in December and that the Australian market is set to pass the magic million “well before Christmas”.

Starting December with 193,778 sales, Toyota needed to sell just 6222 vehicles to achieve the 200,000 feat again. As it usually sells around 20,000 units a month in December, Toyota should end up with about 213,000 sales for 2010, but short of its record 238,983 units in 2008.

Second-placed Holden should come in at about 135,000, with Ford in third place on about 98,000.

Left: Toyota Australia senior executive director sales and marketing David Buttner.

The overall market is expected to top one million units for only the third time in history, up from 937,328 vehicles last year.

To the end of November, the market was up 11.8 per cent, to 948,987 units, requiring only 51,000 sales in December to tick past the million. Last year, December’s sales tally was 88,708.

Toyota Australia senior executive director sales and marketing David Buttner said Toyota dealers had achieved a monthly sales average of 17,600 vehicles so far in 2010.

“So we believe they have already sold the 200,000th vehicle," he said.

"Purchase decisions by consumers have made us the only company ever to sell 200,000 vehicles in a year, so we thank our customers for their support and their loyalty.

"We expect the official sales results in early January to confirm Toyota as the market leader for the 14th time in the past 20 years, including the past eight in a row.”

Toyota was planning for a fast end to 2010 and a fast start to 2011 with competitive marketing offers, including drive-away deals and low-interest finance.

Mr Buttner said the Australian new-vehicle market was also expected to pass the one-million mark well before Christmas.

"We expect 2010 to be only the third year that national sales have topped one million - a remarkably speedy turnaround from the global financial crisis," he said.

This year's total market is expected to be the second-biggest ever, coming between the record of 1,049,982 new vehicles in 2007 and the 1,012,064 sold in 2008.