Toyota stretches sales lead

TOYOTA Australia notched up a storming sales result in August, when it recorded a massive market share of 23.7 per cent for the month, according to official VFACTS figures released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

With a strong start by the new Kluger, which was released in the middle of the month and found 1075 new homes in August, plus solid results from the usual suspects – segment-leaders Corolla (4673 sales – slightly up on July in its third full month on sale), HiLux (which rebounded to 3813 after a slow July), Yaris (2479) and Camry (2312) – the T brand sold 20,938 vehicles for the month to streak away from the pack.

The large Aurion sedan racked up 1873 sales last month to also hit the top-ten best-selling models list, while 1114 Prado sales and 1194 RAV4 sales narrowly bettered the Kluger result.

Toyota’s August sales figure was more than 8700 vehicles better than Holden’s (12,209 sales for a 13.8 per cent share), which dropped a couple of hundred units, and almost 11,400 more than third-placed Ford, which shifted 9544 vehicles in August for a 10.8 per cent total market share.

Holden has lost some ground on its rival, but Commodore retained its status as Australia’s top-selling vehicle for another month, with a lead over Corolla of only about 200 units in August. Commodore dropped about 250 sales over July to post a total of 4899 sales.

Ford will be happy with its all-new Focus, which sneaks into the top 10 in its first full month on sale with almost 1700 sales – well ahead of last month’s result of less than 1100 and also ahead of its 1500 average over the last couple of years.

However, the Blue Oval brigade will be less pleased with the Falcon, which has slipped below 3000 units (2973) to be only slightly ahead of the Mazda3 (with another solid month of almost 2800).

Mazda was again the number-four brand for the month and the leading importer, despite dropping a few hundred to less than 6100 and reducing its overall market share to below seven per cent for the month.

Left: Mitsubishi's 380 posted its worst sales result so far this year, despite a Series III update. The worst news of the month appears to be reserved for Mitsubishi, which lost about 600 sales or more than 10 per cent over July.

While its imports are keeping Mitsubishi 22 per cent ahead of last year’s market share overall – even with Lancer losing a little ground ahead of the imminent launch of the new model – the locally manufactured 380 had by far its worst result of the year.

Sales of the 380 dropped almost 30 per cent on its 2007 monthly average, recording only about 650 in the first month with its new Series III line-up.

The top 10 is the same as it was in July, but the gaps between Honda, Mitsubishi Nissan and Hyundai have narrowed considerably.

Honda lost about 600 sales for the month to just over 5000, despite another big result for the CR-V compact SUV and a strong month for Civic (more than 1800), and only narrowly held out Mitsubishi (4700), Nissan (4500) and Hyundai (4400).

Having narrowly edged out the Toyota RAV4 for a rare victory last month, the Honda CR-V actually opened the margin in August to about 200 units (1410 to 1194).

In fact, the once dominant RAV4 came under pressure from the Subaru Forester, which had a big month with 1179, as did the aged Nissan X-Trail (1030).

In the large SUV segment, Ford’s Territory was again the top performer, but with 1379 sales was down on its 1500 average. Still, it was good enough to hold off the Toyota Prado and Kluger, which each recorded around 1100 sales, while the Holden Captiva improved to 919.

Total market sales volume of 88,206 is up 6545 vehicles or eight per cent on August 2006 (81,661 vehicles), eclipsing the previous August record set in 2005 by 2029 vehicles. It was also 1915 vehicles or 2.2 per cent up on last month (86,291 vehicles), but in seasonally adjusted terms the August number is 5.8 per cent down on July 2007 Significantly, however, it keeps the market on track to comfortably exceed one million sales for the year.

All market segments were up month-on-month, with passenger car sales rising 718 cars or 1.4 per cent on August 2006, SUVs up 3901 vehicles or a huge 28.8 per cent, light trucks up by 1290 units (9.6 per cent) and heavy trucks up 636 sales or a sizeable 23.4 per cent.

Year-to-date Toyota (156,508 sales) leads Holden (100,671) with a margin of 55,837 vehicle sales, or 8.0 market share points – 22.4 to 14.4 per cent.

Ford (72,851, 10.4 per cent) lies a distance third, with Mazda (51,674, 7.4 per cent) closer behind. Mitsubishi (43,634, 6.2 per cent), in fifth place YTD overall, holds a narrower lead over Honda (41,707, 6.0 per cent) and Nisan (41,242, 5.9 per cent), with eighth-placed Hyundai (31,257, 4.5 per cent) leading Subaru (25,711, 3.7 per cent) and Volkswagen (18,367, 2.6 per cent) in tenth.