September VFACTS: Corolla back on top, Commodore overtakes Mazda3 again

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By Tim Beissmann | October 06th, 2011

The Australian automotive industry enjoyed its second consecutive month of growth in September as supply from Japanese manufacturers – particularly Toyota – returned to pre-tsunami levels.

Official VFACTS data released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) shows that 86,819 passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles were sold in September 2011, up 2.1 percent (1765 vehicles) compared with September 2010.

September’s strong result takes total sales for the first nine months of the year to 752,128, putting the industry on track to break the one million mark for only the fourth time.

Toyota enjoyed it first positive sales result (compared with the same month in the previous year) since January, with the Japanese marque’s September sales 7.4 per cent ahead of the same month in 2010.

Ford returned to the manufacturer’s podium while Mazda slipped back to fifth after a record-breaking August. Volkswagen continues to snap of the heels of Mitsubishi for seventh place, while Kia stretched its margin over 11^th-placed Honda (1845).

Top 10 sales by marque:

Toyota – 17,378
Holden – 11,009
Ford – 8161
Hyundai – 7508
Mazda – 6037
Nissan – 5892
Mitsubishi – 4798
Volkswagen – 4407
Subaru – 2503
Kia – 2222

With supply from Japan normalising, the Toyota Corolla surged to the top of the charts, pipping the Commodore by just 54 units.

Despite missing the top spot for September, the Commodore regained its overall number one position for the year. The local large car outsold the Mazda3 by 1009 units, turning a 471-vehicle deficit into a 538-unit lead.

After solid Augusts, the Ford Territory (11^th, 1395 units) and Mazda2 (17^th, 1234) dropped out of the top 10, replaced by the Nissan Navara and Volkswagen Golf.

Top 10 sales by model:

Toyota Corolla – 3766
Holden Commodore – 3712
Toyota HiLux – 3191
Holden Cruze – 3117
Mazda3 – 2703
Hyundai i30 – 2493
Toyota Camry – 2049
Nissan Navara – 1885
Ford Falcon – 1708
Volkswagen Golf – 1664

FCAI CEO Ian Chalmers said he expected Australians to purchase one million new motor vehicles by the end of 2011.

“Reduced sales in the second quarter of 2011 have set a challenging target for the final three months of the year, but industry resolve is high,” Mr Chalmers said.

“Sales stimulus by means of competition in the marketplace saw the third quarter end strongly, and we are now looking toward continued growth through to the end of the year.”

The Toyota Yaris (1367) took control of the light segment ahead of the Mazda2 (1234), Ford Fiesta (1203) and the Suzuki Swift (1014). Eight $48,800 Mitsubishi i-MiEVs were also registered in September.

The top five small cars all reached the overall top 10 for the month, with the Mitsubishi Lancer (1349), Ford Focus (821) and the Kia Cerato (743) the next best performers.

The Toyota Camry controlled the medium segment ahead of the Ford Mondeo (631), Hyundai i45 (529) and Honda Accord Euro (404). The Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which officially competes in the $60,000-plus medium segment, was actually the second highest selling medium car overall, with 656 sales in September.

It was business as usual in the large car segment, with the Commodore outstripping the Falcon by more than 2000 units. The Toyota Aurion (941) was the only other significant player, while the Skoda Superb jumped up to fourth position with 170 sales.

The Toyota RAV4 (1254) took the points in the compact SUV segment ahead of the Subaru Forester (1135), Nissan X-Trail (1063) and the Hyundai ix35 (969).

The Territory maintained its position as the top selling SUV in the land, finishing more than 400 units clear of its closest rival, the Toyota Kluger (970).

The HiLux (1030) led the Commodore Ute (882) and the Falcon Ute (752) in the 4×2 pick-up/cab-chassis segment, and it also did the job over the Navara (2161 vs 1776) in the 4×4 category.

BP

I knew the Territory could not hold a 1,600+ Sales for too long.

And Honda? Cut the price cuts & crap mild-updates to the cars, it clearly isn’t working. Bring in some “all new” models into the range.

nickdl

What Honda will do, is release a whole lot of mediocre “all new” models, boasting a five-speed auto, mated to a N/A four-cylinder engine with no diesel option. Styling will only be evolutionary, as they don’t want anyone to be alienated or offended. Because it’s a new model, they’ll jack up the price to above the competitors even though the car is only made in Thailand and therefore free of import tariff.

They’ll then put a couple of ads on the TV that sound like a kids show and make out as though the N/A four-cylinder petrol and five-speed auto are both rather clever and innovative. However people won’t buy it, as its competitors will offer a more fuel efficient and better driving car with more new technology at a lower price. Amazingly, the competing car will also be as reliable as the Honda, yet cheaper to service, and the servicing won’t be done by an arrogant Honda dealer.

Honda Australia will realise that people are buying other makes of cars over theirs and decide that the only solution will be to reduce the price to what their competitors are charging. This will only serve to anger all of those loyal Honda customers, who have suddenly lost a whole lot of their resale value. Some will be so incensed that they will vow to buy a car from another manufacturer next time, even though they have been buying Hondas for 20 years. Honda will have another go at the TV ads they played a year ago, but do so in a bit of a halfhearted manner.

Honda will then wonder why they’ve slipped from 5th position and nearly 6000 sales in January 2008, to 12th and just 1800 sales in only 3 1/2 years. They’ll decide that the problem was that their car had a front grille which wasn’t modern enough and that updating the whole front bumper of their cars should spark an immediate recovery.

nickdl

What’s next?

BP

Haha, yeah “Whats next”. Great summary “nickdl” you did.

I even think the baby “Jazz” commercial was good. The “Accord Euro” ad where everything fell down. 07 “CR-V” Ad where the music plays & the couple walk out to the car. Those ads were classic. I even liked when the F1 cars would druve by at the end of the commercial. “Those were the days”

Ad’s like that will captivate any potential Honda buyers.
I wanna throw a brick at the TV when the “Whats Next?” ad comes on.

Mr Gaspo

Honda may get lucky… I think Huyndai now have excellent product like i40, however I believe they are about to stumble with ambitious pricing opening they way for Honda to sell on price whist they roll out diesels.

AndyGF

Or not… Selling on price has never been Hondas strong point. Ive never met a honda owner who chose their car (I was one of many) because it was cheap.
It was always because it was best Japanese manufacturer by far. A false statement today, by a long way…

http://caradvice OSU811

Agreed, also Honda keeps refusing to bring out the Euro wagon and diesel versions to OZ anyway, so Hyundai dont need to worry about it!

Ox

I wonder if the C-class success shows a trend in traditional E&S class customers downsizing?
http://www.facebook.com/elgin.lam Elgin Lam

I can’t believe Hyundai sells that many I45′s.. I’ve driven across Sydney and I haven’t seen more then 4 i45′s in a single day.. Where as I see tons of Accords and Accord Euro..

Also CA, add both the Euro and Accord sales together, which is appropiate..

Maybe i45 sells many in Melbourne?

Jersey_997

Neither can I! Living in Melbourne, I have only ever seen 2 on the roads in comparison to the Euro which seems to be far more popular (at least in the area where I live).

BP

Come to the country-side & you see loads of them

MD

I agree with you BP! I also live in a ‘country’ area and I reckon that there’s more i45s cruisin’ around than Corollas and Mazda 3s!

Martin

Plenty of i45′s out here in the Bowen Basin – they are rented for FIFO workers that don’t need an on-site vehicle (mine compliance utes that Thrifty and Budget supply to the mines)

anthony

I too live in Melbourne,and NEVER see an i45,but see literally hundreds of Accord Euros every day…

Phil

Hyundais are popular with the rental companys.
Maybe one of the bigger rental companys took delivery of a entire shipment of i45s?

Crummydore

Wow… Falcon is in 9th place…

No wagon and the claw back from the terrible AU has killed its sales…

Hate to be a profit of doom, but it will be very interesting to see if Ford honestly bother manufacturing in Australia after this models over and done with. Suppose it will all come down to how much money they can get off us taxpayers… oops, sorry, government.

Please do not think that I do not want to see Ford building cars here anymore, its just that with tarriffs the way they are (and going) it just doesn’t look very positive.

More than happy to be proved wrong.

http://www.caradvice.com.au Goose

Sorry mate,I’m afraid I can’t prove you wrong.If you were around in about 1979,Chrysler were going thru what ford is going thru now.That is…..on the way out.

Crummydore

I was a bit young for Chrysler, but I live in the hills above the plant… and watched with dismay as Mitsubishi tested out there 380 around our area. All I could think of when I saw it was P76!

My point is the state Gov poured mountains of tax payers into what was effectively a dead duck – made them look good keeping jobs etc.

Now if Ford is in the same posi… is everyone going to bury their heads in the sand and waste tax payers cash again? Or will the media (Tim?) take issue with this and get some answers?

Does the gov want a car industry… and if so, how can they help without wasting our cash?

Dont mean to sound so serious but it is not being addressed.

http://www.caradvice.com.au Goose

Yeah,thats right.For Ford,the secret is to do some market research,build cars people actually want,then advertise them to death! Failing that,they’ll be full importers by 2016. Chrysler never made cars here again{as Chrysler},and never will.

Doctor

I don’t know how Toyota does it. Whilst they are good vehicles, they are far from the best in each category and not the best value either. But good luck to Toyota Australia, the John Conomos legacy lives on.

F1m

They’re good vehicles, spacious, efficient, good value, cheap to service, very reliable and good brand.. So all in all they’re best all rounders..

Yonny

That description matches quite a few of the Corolla’s direct competitors, such as the Lancer, Mazda 3, Hyundai i30, Kia Cerato, all of which offer more standard equipment, usually at a lower price.

Don’t get me wrong, the Corolla isn’t a dud car by any means, but seriously, anyone who buys one just hasn’t done their research.

F1m

Dude I don’t have the energy to start an argument..

Why did people buy more C-class then IS250 or IS350? even though the IS350 is even cheaper, and offers more for less, even more so then the Lancer, 3 etc..

Also the Mazda 3 top grade is much more expensive then Corolla.. And all those cars mentioned have smaller dimensions then the corolla and Corolla has the reliability durability and excellent resale..

And Kia? I wouldn’t call them good value for money.. They’re expensive..

Yonny

Wait a minute, you’re saying the cars I mentioned are smaller than the Corolla? What are you smoking? I suggest you check out the specs.

And what has the C class got to do with anything? We’re talking base model cheap small cars, and you’re dragging in luxury cars to make a point – whatever that point may be.

Also, other cars have reliability, durability and excellent resale as well – the Corolla isn’t a one-car race in that regard.
JooberFPVGT

Actually speaking of base models, I would like to know out of the corolla sales figure are the base vs top of the line variants being sold?
JooberFPVGT

and straight up purchase vs financing..

Ox

Red Corollas go faster

Karl

Faster than what?
A donkey walking backwards?

Nugsdad

Who is it buys Corrollas must be fleets, or are ther really that many boring people?

bert

I quess you would know, how’s your camira going?

Car Fanatic

If Holden Cruze wants top spot, Holden should run 3.9% finance like Toyota do. That’s really what got Corolla back on top.

Great effort by VW as a company and Golf as a car, almost toppled the Falcon.

BP

Cruze MY 12 Changes & Hatch due in November is enough.
nickdl

And the fact that the Corolla can be had in a hatch…

Anthony

no more GMAC.
it would be too hard to do a discount finance package.
toyota have Their own finance. thats why they can do it.

Rocketman

The Commodore needs to fight back. A new grill and headlights are what consumers want.

F1MotoGP

…and better fuel economy.
JML

Bigger wheel arches and more tough-looking black plastic add-ons will save Commie.

Clem

@AndyGF – I agreed. The buyers who chose is not because it was cheap. “It was always because it was best Japanese manufacturer by far.”
Child

Good work Toyota! Keep crying for poor!
Alexander

Are Prius/Insight sales still in the dumps?

Can anyone provide figures?

http://www.caradvice.com.au Tim Beissmann

Hi Alexander

Prius – 104 in Sep, 226 year-to-date
Insight – 56/489
CT 200h – 139/927

Cheers
Tim Beissmann

Able

They’ve seriously sold that many CT200h’s this year? That’s fantastic!

Alexander

I see heaps around, so i’m not suprised! but it is beyond what i expected they’d sell when it launched.

Joan

Hi Tim..

Figures for Large luxury cars.. Thanks?

http://www.caradvice.com.au Tim Beissmann

Hi Joan

BMW 7 Series – 12 in Sep, 123 year-to-date
Porsche Panamera – 12/88
Mercedes-Benz S-Class – 6/112
Audi A8 – 6/104
Jaguar XJ – 6/63
Rolls-Royce – 5/17
Bentley – 3/49
Lexus LS – 2/25

Cheers
Tim Beissmann

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1715760895 Charles Dean

Not a good month for Japanese.. Next few month should see better figures for Japanese brands..
dodgem

Why did the Focus (821 sales)sell so poorly? Is the new model low in stock?
Strong showing from Hyundai with the absence of the Getz. Only one Getz was sold in September.

F1m

Hyundai sales are not all that rosy considering how many models they have..

And what happened to Mazda?
tw

Focus is very low in stock since all are shipped from Europe atm and they don’t have enough capacity for their own market either. Stock should improve next year when the Thailand plant comes online.

Jimmy

Last time i said the new Camry will sell over 3000 units per months i got rated down..Do people still doubt the next Camry will sell more then 3000 units per months??

Considering how the current Camry is 5-6yrs old.. Impressive numbers..

Harold

Needs a 5 door hatch or wagon, a plain sedan does not cut it anymore for private buyers. Although it will continue to sell well to Government and rental fleets.

Jc

Harold you obviously don’t live in Suburbia.. Where almost every other car is a shiny Camry or Corolla parked on the driveway..

Harold

And most of them are fleet

BP

Hi Tim,

Figures for Holden Range?…thanks.
bert

WELL DONE TOYOTA back to rightful place at dominant NUMBER 1.
Wait till new hilux starts to really get going, Hilux will be NUMBER 1 in 2012 by a long way with COROLLA a close 2nd Mazda3 3rd & Commodore 4th!
JUST WAIT TILL 2012.

Car Fanatic

We will hold you to that, I’m betting you’ll be wrong.
nickdl

The HiLux will never reach number 1. The best days are long gone. While it used to be pretty much the default choice in buying a ute, the competition have caught up and surpassed it. Chinese utes too will take sales from the HiLux, as the Great Walls already are.

F1MotoGP

Skoda is doing well. Apr sold 123 vehicle and now 421. Lexus is improved but I ma surprised how bad is the Lexus LS doing compared to Germans. Even the worst German big car Audi A8 sold just over 400% more than Lexus.
http://www.caradvice.com.au Goose

Oh well,at least either the Commodore or Falcon will win on Sunday!

Devil’s Advocate

More like a car that “looks like” a Commodore or Falcon will win on Sunday…

Commentator

Wow, I didn’t think I’d see the day when the Golf would be in the top ten when I bought my Golf way back in 2001.
Tony

The Merc C-Class has proven to be a great success.

Alexander

Considering it’s a minimum $60,000 (or probably $70,000 with options & on road costs) it sold a combined (between sedan/wagon/coupe) 839 cars, very impressive!
xixzor

i reckon its partly because of those great magazine ads you keep seing …” A serial thriller in a class of its own.” Thats how you sell a car Ford!

anthony

Tim,please can you provide the top sellers in the MEDIUM segment,as it has become the most competitive of all,with lots of excellent cars.
Would love to see how the new VW Jetta and Passat is doing against the rest.

Andrew M

Medium segment most competitive?? How so??

The Large segment which everyone write off still sells more cars than the medium segment.

Who wants a slightly smaller, 4cyl which uses as much if not more fuel than a full size 6cyl?

Jetta must sell under 600 because 3rd place in the medium segment sells 600 odd

Im guessing thats why the medium segment has never really taken off.
If you want to see some competition look another peg or 2 below the medium

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1715760895 Charles Dean

Yeah I’m no big fan of the over hyped mid-size segment.. Take out the Camry and the mid-size segment ceases to exist..

nickdl

Well technically, based on size, the Camry should be in the large segment. The only thing that keeps in in mid-size is the 4cyl engine. The Aurion is about 1cm longer and therefore goes up a class.

paulb

Territory still leads its class by a long way.Was told by a Ford person that Eco Lpi has yet to be placed at local dearlerships in any great numbers.Only a small number have hit the showrooms.
Camry ,Commodore and Cruze going well.Still 4 Aussies in top 10.

Andrew M

Yeah I dont get that.

They are flogging Territory and Focus, but havent heard boo about the Eco Lpi and Ranger as far as adverts go.

Is Lpi even on the market yet??

Karl

Yeah that is odd.
Maybe they’re marketing one at a time for some unknown reason?
I saw an LPi yesterday (first one).

chippies!

I have been into four local dealers and only one seemed to know anything about the EcoLPi, nobody else wanted to help.

On the weekend I saw a white XT and when I asked about XR6 or G6 the bloke said that they won’t get them in unless people order them. Who the hell is buying a white XT?

When I asked about price he didnt seem to be too interested either. “About $50k” is all I got. At least the other dealer who was helpful and knowledgeable gave me a realistic idea on price and estimated time to arrival.

Are Ford keen on selling it or not? Maybe it’s not the public who need convincing of the benefits to EcoLPi, it’s the dealers.

paulb

Ford Dealers donT blog on Car Advise,read Newspaper motoring sections or Wheels Magazine.As all the above comments say there seem to be little interest in LPI.
The people who have asked about LPI have been told the same as you chippies ??

paulb

A friend went looking at cars last weekend.Visited 5 differnt Ford dealers and only seen 2 LPIs at the same dealer.
Interesting Geelongs banner they ran through on AFL Grand Final day was a Ford Ranger advert.If im wrong will be corrected,Ford sponsorship of Geelong is the oldest sporting sponsorship relationship in the world.51 years.
On Focus i have been told there is none of that stock either despite the massive advertising.

Car Fanatic

Wrong, Ford began sponsoring Geelong in 1925 so have just racked up 86 years.

paulb

Thanks for the correction Car Fanatic.Is that 86 year agreement the oldest sponsorship deal in the world.

Rick Patterson

A friend of mine works for a toyota dealership in sydney and when we were looking at 7 seat suv he told us to stay clear of the kluger and as a friend told us to stay clear of Toyota full stop he reckons they are the worst cars currently on the market except corolla but are the easiest cars to sell cause Toyota owners are who used to buy commodores ,falcons they bought them based on brand loyalty not because they compared them to anything else as he pointed out at a recent BBQ he hasn’t been out on a test drive for almost 3months but in that time has sold just over 160 cars so I put this to the test at my work I asked the 18 people that I work with that own toyotas if they test drove anything else and all except 2 said no they bought the toyotas based soley on the badge on the front I do know from experience that the 200 series cruisers we had at work were a lot of problems I.e using oil and 2 out of 8 ended up with failed gearboxes and yes they are driven hard and abused but we haven’t had any problems with the pajeros or the 2 Hyundai santa fe one of which has racked up over 100,000 km in just 18months most of the time towing a 2tonne trailer . We have also bought a Santa fe for ourselves around 9mths ago which is something I never thought I would do ( buy a Hyundai) and my personal opinion on the best cars currently available in oz I’d have to say would be the commodore and falcon as far as economy goes do a search for the $2 challenge it’s quite an interesting watch

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1715760895 Charles Dean

If you are part of Hyundais PR, then I highly recommend Hyundai to seriously re-consider their team..
Devil’s Advocate

WOW that was hard to read. For starters, punctuation is your friend. Charles, I doubt he is part of Hyundai’s PR team because I don’t know of any company that would hire someone with English skills like this into a PR position…

Rick Patterson

Sorry for the bad grammar ,I didn’t realize I was surrounded by such geniuses . However it doesn’t change the facts . When we had toyotas we had problems and plenty of them ,but haven’t had any problems with the mitsubishis or the hyundai’s . As for working for Hyundai, Charles I assume you work for one of the jap manufacturers. My guess Toyota .

nickdl

Mate, it’s just so much easier to read when you can clearly work out where a sentence starts and ends.

Rick

Nickdl I understand that, but it’s meant to be a forum about car stuff not attacks on my learning disabilities. Theres no need for personal attacks.
Devil’s Advocate

Sorry about that Rick. I am anything but a genius, you made some good points about your own experience, it was just extremely difficult to understand. A comma and a full stop here and there would have helped get your point across immensely. Once again, I am sorry for upsetting you.
nickdl

It wasn’t a personal attack, I wasn’t attacking anything on the content, and no, perfect grammar isn’t necessary, but some grammar is in order so that your comment can easily be read by others. With a few full stops, you’ll get your perfectly valid point across much more clearly.

Shak

I was really expecting the new Focus to be doing better than this, but then again supply issues explain most of that away. One thing that still surprises me is how well the Cruze is doing with such a limited model line up. People can hate on it all they like, but i would rather people driving around in an Aussie (debate that as much as you want) made vehicle, than a Corolla, or something which costs about the same, but doesnt pour a cent into our manufacturing industry; which honestly needs all the help it can get.
John of Melbourne

Why is the focus on breaking the million mark each year?
Is the road mileage increment coping with the all the new vehicles on the road. We should also focus on the percentage of local manufactured vehicles instead of the total volume of vehicles sold. Please get our priorities correct.
John of Melbourne

Why is the focus on breaking the million mark each year?
Is the road mileage increment coping with all the new vehicles on the road. We should also focus on the percentage of local manufactured vehicles instead of the total volume of vehicles sold. Please get our priorities correct.
H.

Does anyone know which Ford dealer in the Sydney/ C coast area that moves the most on RRP? I know it depends somewhat on stock etc but generally speaking who is determined not to be beaten on price/wants to push big volumes?
F1MotoGP

People buying more small cars and less big cars and is not replaced by SUV. This trend is continue in the last 30 years.

Passenger car sales Sep-11 (2011 YTD +/-)
Light 9,620 (YTD 99,829, -3.1%)
Small 21,092 (YTD 181,465, 0.1%)
Medium 7,356 (YTD 56,221, -9.2%)
Large 7,212 (YTD 60,558 , -19.2%)
Upper Large 265 (YTD 2353, -5.6%)
People Movers 921 (YTD 8483, -9.8%)
Sports 1,234 (YTD 10,393 -22%)

SUV sales Sep-11 (2011 YTD +/-)
Compact 10,110 (YTD 89,101, 4%)
Medium 6,938 (YTD 57,271, -10.1%)
Large 1,131 (YTD 9,108, 1.8%)
Luxury 2,599 (YTD 21,70, +19.1%)