Australian car market still strong
June 4, 2008 by George Skentzos
A statement released today by the FCAI has revealed that Australian new vehicle sales remain strong despite higher interest rates and fuel prices.
The official VFACTS figures show that 88,640 cars, trucks and buses were sold in May – an increase of 43 vehicles on the same month last year.
While this may seem like a nominal increase, the car market is still up 4 percent on 2007 – which was an all-time record year with over one million cars sold.
The figures reveal the passenger car market has dropped slightly by 2.5 percent whilst the SUV and light commercial market continues to boom despite higher fuel costs.
Utility sales have remained particularly strong with the pick-up/cab-chassis 4×4 segment rising by 5.7 percent over May last year, while the van segment rose 22.5 percent.
FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said an increasing number of passenger vehicles and SUVs are being bought with clean-diesel engines.
“The traditional image of diesel vehicles has changed,” he said. “Diesel vehicles can provide significant benefits in terms of fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions but have good power and performance.”
Toyota remains the top-selling manufacturer, becoming the first car company to exceed 100,000 sales in the first five months of the calendar year with Australian’s buying 101,816 Toyota cars and trucks between January 1 and the end of May this year.
Holden and Ford are still trailing in second and third place, with their combined sales still less than that of Toyota’s – having sold 55,155 and 44,183 cars each respectively in the same period.
GM Holden’s John Lindsay has said these results were largely due to the fact Holden has stopped building the Crewman and production has not yet begun on the new Commodore VE Wagon.
“May saw our strongest monthly sales of sedan YTD, which has been supported by strong sales of 60th Anniversary Commodore models. Overall numbers are on a par with the same month in 2007.”
Sales of the new Holden Ute are also strong, up 52 percent on May last year – 86 percent overall on the equivalent YTD in 2007.
Print it: 
Wait, what’s with the remark about the Holden Crewman ute? I thought that was a massive sales failure and Holden aren’t going to attempt any more niche variations like that and the Adventra anymore.
Doh!
Re Comments about fuel and diesel:
well, I admit I have never been worried about fuel/diesel price until yesterday, after I know how much tax is imposed to the pump price.
Each time you pay for fuel, do you think how much you’re paying in tax? For example:
Pump price: 150.9 Cents per litre, (cheapeat in Melbourne today)
Volume purchased: 50 Litres
Total cost: $75.45
***Tax: $25.91!!!!!
Getting rid of tax will give 99.08Cents per litre.
So Rudd, instead of spending extra millions of dollars on fuel watch, why don’t you loose the tax on fuel. I was so blinded to blame the world oil market, but I was wrong. It’s the goverment! I guess the same story can be easily applied to diesel, which is more than 20cents dearer than petrol!
“GM Holden’s John Lindsay has said these results were largely due to the fact Holden has stopped building the Crewman and production has not yet begun on the new Commodore VE Wagon” – Bullshit.
VW have a long way to go in Australia if they plan to pass Toyota. GM and Ford together didn’t beat Toyota (And don’t bring up the fleet part, alot of fords/holdens are fleet as well)….Impressive…anyway I’ll leave eveyone else here to critisize toyota in anyway they possible can!
Toyota recently introduced fixed price servicing for first 60,000klms. Smart move which costs them nothing.
Very slick adds also especially in HD!
Hyundai standard ESP across the range should build their brand and sales.
Instead of $300.00 oil change it’s only $150.00.
Although people paying 30k plus for the purchase this incidental stuff really resonates with buyers.
I sincerely hope you are not old enough to vote, Weirloo.
Try this line of thinking – Any government which gets rid of the taxes on fuel will have to replace those taxes from somewhere else.
So you will cop a $25 tax every time you fart or every time you say something stupid.
Better to keep the fuel excise, don’t you think. Feel free to think about it.
Wouldnt say thats entirely right Reckless. Australia is one of the more heavily taxed countries… and our governments in recent times at least have been returning Surpluses. They could reduce some taxes if they wanted to, BUT the real issue is inflation. Reducing taxes will have the effect of stimulating an economy, something we dont need right now.
Reckless1,
They don’t have to get rid of the taxes altogether, just cap them at a fixed value.
Yeah! Long live the Holden Ute! :D
^Anti-Spam word was XR6 though…………
Was Crewman a massive sales failure?
I see mobs of them on the roads…
TP,
you are right in saying that australia is one of the heaviest taxed countries,
but in knowing that i have travelled to countries where taxes are pretty much non existant.
and to summarise i must say i love living in australia.
if you dont pay taxes, you dont get squat.
and you people think we dont get squat now………
yeah there was a big surplus, but even dropping the 3c per litre will cost 1 billion bucks.
that is one billion bucks that will be tacked on something else.
i have no problems in paying the taxes, my problem lies with those that dont pay them and feel they are entitled to benefit from government handouts.
you reap what you sow i reckon.
yes we must all help the elderly and disabled that cant fend for them selves, but there are a hell of a lot that take the governments (or should i say MY) money for a ride
i say dich the world fast Broad Band idea, and use that money in the form of a petrol rebate.
why do people whinge about having to pay the tax but not whinge about the stupid ways in which the money is spent??
I look um,er forward to my next avis toyota hire car.
Thats right Trackdaze.
Try and hire a Holden or Ford from a hire company and they will find it hard to get you one. Plenty of Toyota’s because they are not making much money from fleet. I guess though they sold 100,000 vehicles so turnover is impressive!
Fuel Taxes?
How about raising fuel tax then use the procedes to improve public transport infrastructure. Hmmm maybe I won’t hear much support for this on a site for car fanatics huh?
I agree with Andrew M – lets make sure transport taxes (fuel tax) get used wisely – preferably to improve transport efficiency!
I don’t have problem paying tax either. My point is, we pay high tax in Au, but money is wasted on fuel watch program. And yes, I totally agree those who are entitled to benifits do nothing everyday but drinking and causing problems everyday. I agree paying tax is better than no tax, but when there is a huge surplus, well, there are surelly better ways than fuel watch program.
public transport infrastructure? are you kidding me? I take PakeHam line train everyday, I tell you, it sucks! How long has it been? you see a change? let alone the freaking idiot myki system? when will that come out. it’s a joke!
marketmaker… you wont find any support anywhere when asking for higher taxes to help a government that is in surplus. its like saying more speed cameras will help in victoria, seriously, there cant be many more bridges left they can install them on!?!?
what good would more money (fuel taxes) do the rudd government, to propose a plan that might knock off 3cents the price of petrol is pointless, we know the price is going to go up, in 3 months time it will be 10cents more than now, so whats the point of 3 cents less, especially when it gunna cost millions to implement (taxes) and probably wont work (admission by the rudd gorvernment).
Duck Says:
June 4th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Yeah! Long live the Holden Ute!
Is that the johny come lately copy of the iconic Ford ute? You DO realise Holden copied Ford don’t you?
JW The crewman was a fiarly successful experiment for Holden.. the only issue most owners had was the lack of space in the back seats
Holden are planning to release the [VE] Crewman which will be built on the Sportwagon/Ute wheelbase. Possibly as a replacement for the Rodeo?
Yes I do know they did Bret! But who cares!
^The Colorado is Wheelnut.
If you think fuel prices are high here go to Europe/England/Japan. America is a clsssic example of low fuel prices equals gas guzzlers. Oil will not last forever. A little pain over a period of time is better than one massive jolt ( ie America).Ford/GMH have been slow to react and Japanese/Europens because of high fuel prices have developed more fuel efficent cars.The American car industry is going to suffer a long decline and the Europens/Japanese and do not laugh in time the Chinese/Indians will become the big players.This is where the leading edge technology will come from along with cheaper cars.