Toyota exceeds 100,000 sales in five months
June 5, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
Toyota Australia has set yet another record in the Australian automotive world. The Big T has sold 101,816 cars in the first five months of a calendar year, the largest record ever set by a manufacturer.
Of course Toyota was only beating its own record set last year at 91,984 vehicles for the same period. No other company has even come close to 75,000 vehicles in a January-May period.
The encouraging results come after five record record sales each month this year. The top honour still goes to the little Corolla, which has beaten the Commodore to remains the best-selling vehicle in Australia this year.
So far Toyota has sold 19,392 Corollas this year, slightly more than Holden with its Commodore. The HiLux has also been a strong performer with 3,914 units registered last month.
Toyota’s other cars, the Yaris (1,987), Camry (1,933) and Aurion (1,618) also listed in the top ten best-sellers in May and for the year so far.
If you thought the Prius was getting old, the petrol-electric hybrid car had its second-best month ever with 373 sales.
So far Toyota controls 23.3% of the market with 101,816 vehicles sold. Coming in second is Holden with 12.6% marketshare and 55,155 vehicles sold. Ford is third with a 10.1% share and 44,183 vehicles sold.
Mazda follows closely with 34,969 vehicles sold for a 8% marketshare. Mtisbishi (6.2%), Nissan (5.8%), Honda (5.5%), Hyundai (4.3%), Subaru (3.8%) and Volkswagen (3%) finish the top 10.
Print it: 
Notice to all other car manufacturers.
Forget spending money on putting in good chassis, proper engineering and dumb down your vehicles.
apparently Mediocrity is in
Well you have to give Toyota a star, but how many are private buyers and how many are fleet including hire cars? There are at least 50 Corollas that sit in the govt carpark each night of the local branch of social services.
Let the mediocre masses drive a mediocre car, while I enjoy a bit of excitement every time I drive. Plus I get better economy than a petrol Corolla and put out less CO2 emissions.
Even with the life-saving technology of ESP/DSC not being available on the Corolla, even as an option, it still outsells every other car in the market, most of which cars have ESP as standard or optional. Proof that the average Joe will buy anything as long as it has a Toyota badge on it.
3 words…
who really cares
so a bunch more boring, overpriced, ill-equipped and ugly cars are on the roads, big deal.
ESP will be added to the ‘Rolla in August, 2 months from now !!
Why does this ESP argument come up all the time?
The fact is that the technology will be available very soon, and people are still willing to buy the car without it. In fact, its competitors mostly don’t have ESP standard, and I’d be willing to bet that the takeup rate is probably less than 25%.
I base this off information that the optional airbag package, which costs less than $1000 in the Toyota Yaris and Mazda 2 have a takeup rate of less than 10%.
JansJetta historically 60% of Corollas are to fleets…. in excess of 80% for Commodore and Falcon.
Why are you comparing Corollas to Falcons and Commodores? How many Astras and Focuses are fleets TP?
Your figures are wrong, TP. I, too, once took them for granted in respect to the Commodores and Falcons and read an actual break up just 2 months ago. But I’m sorry, I can’t tell you where to find it, as I forget. Surprisingly, the percentage of Commodore’s fleet sales was somewhere in the mid to high sixties.
That’s now. Historically, maybe, more like the 80% you quote.
Golf hard to believe its only 50% (not saying yoyr lying, rather the stats seem unusual)… I say this because the main driving force behind poor retention of value among Falcon and Commodore is discounts to fleets.
As for Comparisons Myke, on 2006 figures at least, the Corolla was #2 with fleets included and #1 without fleets. So eitherway it wins.
Golf is right…Commodore private sales are now in the region of 35%.
Unsure of Falcon.
Golf you read right BUT it was a bit of shall we say licenced journalism, apparently any v8 sold under a fleet arrangement was considered a non fleet sale, yes weird I know, but they deemed it be a non ordinary fleet sale(v8) so it was treated as a private sale in the article. And no, thats jus plain wrong, they were fleet sales.
Drive.com published fleet figures a few months back …
Corolla is infact approx 40% purchased by fleet (60 % private) while Commodores and Falcons are each approx 80% purchased by fleet (20% private)
You can manipulate statistics when reporting numbers as a percentage. Toyotas sell most of their models at cost price and that is why they number 1, which means alot to a car manufacturer or any business.
Hey Trackdaze
Thats because 85% of the market buy new cars to drive everyday and not to stimulate their senses…
Its what market dictates and it shows… so who does Toyota cater for… the people who want super performance and not willing to pay the price… or the mass market that is looking for a reliable every day car…
Logic.
And its true, Toyota could match Mazda and Honda, feature for feature….. easily…
But, again, the mass market is willing to pay extra for it, why not charge them.
You see, most people “hating” are simply missing the point of manufacturing.
Theres really 2 types… a vehicle for the masses that meets all regulations and engineered as efficient as possible.
Or you can design a vehicle for performance, which only 5% of the population can afford, and that 5% usually is willing to spend an extra amount to get the better name…
Again, its a GOOD thing most of the haters dont run companies… because those companies would be broke after a week.
and the comment about not spending money on engineering and other design…
haha, ignorance is bliss….. you’d think so… and i dont blame you. It seems people perceive these new technology features are designed by car manufacturers…. engine technology maybe… and Toyota engines are very good in comparison to every manufacturers (considering cost and market).
Most of these new technology are from suppliers… case in point, its just a matter of the design engineering to use supplier technology into the car they are developing, MOSt cars these days are designed to easily accomodate these supplier parts, but to keep the cost down they omit them except for some models.
Other manufacturers who sell poorly in comparison to Toyota, has to include these “technology” and features to have a “leverage”, as admittedly, Toyota’s reputation alone is too strong for them to sway customers…
I’ll say it again, Toyota may be “allocating” boring cars to Australia, thats because pretty much most of the regulations and the cost of maintaining vehicles are high in Australia. They do studies and forecasting you know… and it works… obviously, as sales show… Toyota can easily release 3-4 new “exciting” models but would flop, because the market isnt big enough to sustain it, in comparison to japan, usa or europe..
Thanks for the detail there, Nobby. So that’ll be influenced by people like me who are sole traders yet who have the opportunity of riding piggy-back on a larger group’s fleet program and choose a V8 SSV as my own non-fleet car private wheels that’s actually used 80% for business (gasp for breath), would I be correct to presume? What does the break down end up as?
You lost me after thanks golf :)
I see the reasoning, but if its a discounted sale its fleet. TBH golf, who cares fleet or not, you can drive away in a Lumina at the moment for 33k, you know, the one with 7k in extra’s, the Aurion has 4k of the top, and the Falcon has just been running out as well. There big cars, some of the are nice toys, most of em are hacks in one way or another and they are dropping sales volume in double digits, now if you are discounting them 24/7 to sell em its usually indicative that under normal sale conditions people are not really interested. That is to say give standard pricing not many want them. Yer there all fleet, see the latest trends for fleet sales of diesel suv’s AND passenger cars?? Where s our falcdore diesel, where is our aurion diesel?? These guys dont know how bad things are gonna get yet, wait till petrol is 2.50 a litre, you enjoy your v8 ssv 24/7 then, get my drift?
ha ha, you took less breath than I did! :)
It’s late. I think I get your drift.
WGAF
Poison Eagle seems to be feeling the same way as I do…..
sheesh, just got my breath back golf, did that make sense!
I don’t understand why everyone is talking about the Corolla. The article relates to 100,000 Toyotas and if you read the “Related Posts” you will note it’s the HiLux that is selling. These are commercial vehicles not your day to day vehicles.
When I helped my kids buy their first cars I went to the car auctions and noted that a lot of Commodores and Falcons were being sold but not many Corollas. I conclude that the current sale of Toyota vehicles will flood the used car market in a couple of years which will have a major effect on the price of Toyota cars then. You might say, what does that have to do with the 100,000 Toyotas sold? Simply this, these peeks in sale numbers are seasonal and you might find that there will be a dramatic drop over the next couple of years. The example to this is the Commodore which you can buy quite cheaply now. One of the majot effects with car sales will be the new diesels that are coming from Europe both in small cars and soft 4X4 (alla RAV style). These cars from Audi, Renault, Peugeot Skoda, etc are going to have a major impact on the Toyota brand more than any other brand in Australia. Why? because they are already doing it in Europe. My current impression of Toyota is “short term gain long term loss”.
Just a small sideline issue. There are people who say, “so what, the Corolla doesn’t have the stability control on their current vehicles we’ll add it on the next model”.
When I looked for cars for my kids, the first thing I look for is SAFETY. The car doesn’t have I don’t look at it. Let’s see how quick these companies who have bought Corolla move them when the lease/hire periods are up.
Crazyfreak – let me highlight how pathetic your statement is.
In one sentance some clown will state that Toyota’s are overpriced but then in another freaks like you say they are giving them away … !!
You clowns are clueless what the hell you are saying yet have a habit of passing pure rot.
Even better – Toyota just recently published thier 16.5 billion dollar profit for thier last FISCAL year making it between 15 – 19 billion dollar profits for the pass 7 consecative years.
Giving cars away – aaaah, yeah … sure – go back bed you freak !!
Five years ago GM Holden And Toyota were doing battle at about 18% market share each. Toyota won, just. Today Toyota are on about 23% and GM Holden are on about 13%!!
Note to GM Holden sales executives:- Guys the “Korean Experiment” is a failure, no total disaster. If Holden offered a decent range of cars in Australia people would buy them.
Big Al. The Korean experiment is obviously a disaster but that does not explain fords failings. The focus is a nice little car and the mondeo is very competent. Yet ford could not sell heat too the eskimo’s the way their cars don’t sell at all. What is Ford’s excuse for apalling sales? Holden at least has an excuse of selling rubbish in most segments. Barina, viva, epica, captiva anyone!
Toyota deserves full credit for achieving an absolutely amazing feat of selling 100 000 cars in the first 5 months of a year. Even in ford and holdens hey day when they had 50% of the market between them they did not come close to this. Look nobody has ever sold over 75 000 in that period let alone 100 000. Only toyota keeps breaking their own records. Good work to the Big T. Holden and Ford lift your games as you are both an embarassment when you have a market that are brand loyalists and you still cannot sell many cars too them!
John. fiesta sales are up 24% ytd, Mondeo is almost moving 600 units monthly, focus is pretty consistent but down, Terra is doing okay for its age, I think Ford have a pretty good range there is some quality to it, give it time, Im sure Fords own planning allowed a couple of years for the mondeo and such. A refurbish on the Terra is going to help that and I hope the Falcon does well, its clearly better than aurion and VE. Seems to me Ford adopted a mid to long term view 2 years ago, go with quality, build a small car here, and chase rwd dev and possible export of same, Ford is holding its ground and working on building a solid range, its their only chance if they want to survive in this country, frankly, I dont know WTF holden are doing, the export thing is great, but there is no substance or depth to their model range, VE, Viva, astra, caprice and statesman are all double digit losers ytd, last 2 months for epica are 159 and 47, captiva is going okay and barina is holding its ground then again you can drive away in it now for 13k..500 jobs gone today at Holden..does not look good long term
I have never witnessed Holden get smashed so hard by Toyota. It has become a bloody bath at Toyota’s delight. Good on ‘em, about time Holden got what they deserved in this country after years of crap cars and horrible service. Holden would do good in the bottom end of the Korean market with all due respects to Hyundai.
And the news just keeps getting better …
for all those clowns that have been swarking about Holden is gonna expand in Australia to possibly make way for the Torana, then explain why DRIVE.com has just released an article under ‘news’ that Holden is effectively closing part of it’s operation at Elizabeth that will coincidentally retrench another 500 workers … gee wiz !!
Those people have mortgages and kids mate, class act.
Toyota has probably been watching what Woolies & Coles have been doing with liquor, groceries & fuel. Buy up, sell at cost, watch the others go broke, become a duopoly, then charge what you like.
Thank all governments over the last 40 years or so for supporting the manufacturing industries for all of that.
I wonder if Holden would still be around today if it weren’t for it’s export program.
Kudos to Toyota as a corporation on their 100,000, shows they processes and strategies pay off.
all the recent comments for some strange reason reminds me of the Greg Norman switch (jump ship) from Statesman to Toyota Avalon. That was a real kick in the teeth on Holdens part.
Nobby – they have nobody to blame but Holden / GM … PERIOD !!
For all those who like to laugh at Toyota – guess what … the laugh is on them.
Dingo/Lov’n It…………you remind me of the chick that sings with meat loaf on “Paradise by the dash board lights “…….you just wont shut up ……..what does meatloaf sing in the in the end…..hes praying for the end of time ! Sounds good to me!
Bavarian …
He, He, He … Hoo, Hoo, Hoo … Ha, Ha, Ha …
Look who’s not so smart now !!
Lov’n It: It’s actually part of the Holden Engine Company Facility in Melbourne – where they build a range of V6 and 4 cylinder engines for various makes that they are going to close [temporarily] not the Vehicle Assembly Line in Elizabeth
How may where RWD?A big Fat ZERO.100,000 driving school cars sold Wow,Woppie.