New Models

Car sales October 2012: winners and losers

Toyota has dominated Australia's new vehicle sales charts in October, with the Toyota HiLux, Toyota Camry and Toyota Corolla filling three of the top four places in the national monthly rankings.

Tim Beissmann

12:0005 November 2012

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Car sales October 2012: winners and losers

The HiLux ute (3403 sales) reclaimed top spot in October from the Mazda3 small car (3342), which slipped to third in what was a stellar month for the locally built mid-sized Camry sedan (3379).

October saw the Camry claim the title of the top-selling Australian-made car for just the second time in its history – the first coming in January 1995 – easily accounting for traditional sales leaders the Holden Commodore (2449) and the Ford Falcon (1391).

The Corolla achieved 2977 sales and fourth place in a month of transition between the run-out model and the all-new ninth-generation hatch, while its South Korean competitor, the Hyundai i30, rounded out the top five with 2898 sales.

Holden’s two Australian-made models ranked sixth (Commodore – 2449) and eighth (Cruze – 2551), split by the Volkswagen Golf (2436), which enjoyed one of its strongest months on record.

The Ranger (2126) was again Ford’s best-selling model ahead of the small-sized Focus (1740). The Australian-engineered ute ranked ninth overall across the industry and was the second-most-popular ute in the country ahead of the 10^th-placed Nissan Navara (2124), the Holden Colorado (2082) and the Mitsubishi Triton (1481).

Toyota holds a commanding lead over the rest of the market in terms of total sales. Another 18,584 deliveries in October (up 7.8 per cent over October 2011) saw its sales for the first 10 months of 2012 rise to 177,695, representing a year-to-date increase of 19.6 per cent.

Holden locked down 10,239 sales in October, holding ground compared with the same month last year, while Ford enjoyed a boost, jumping back onto the podium with 8379 deliveries and a 21.1 per cent increase.

Mazda (7738) came back to earth after a record-breaking September, finishing just ahead of fifth-placed Hyundai (7576).

Sixth-placed Nissan achieved a record October with 6662 sales, Volkswagen outsold Mitsubishi again (5559 versus 5334), and Kia held off Honda for the final place inside the top 10 (2977 versus 2852).

The Mazda2 (1351) held off the Toyota Yaris (1300) and the Hyundai i20 (1118) in the light-sized segment. In just its second month on sale, the Volkswagen Up! achieved 306 sales, eclipsing the larger and pricier Polo by 21 cars.

The Focus ranked sixth in the small-car segment behind the five best sellers inside the overall top 10, with the Honda Civic (1246) and Mitsubishi Lancer (1035) also cracking four figures.

Following the Camry in the medium class were two premium Germans – the Mercedes-Benz C-Class (658) and the BMW 3 Series (484) – with the Mazda6 (440) and the Ford Mondeo (419) the only other significant sellers.

Like the Camry, the locally made Toyota Aurion large sedan also sold in strong numbers (931), trailing the Commodore and Falcon and accounting for the Honda Accord (201).

Despite being deep in run-out mode, the Mitsubishi Outlander (1523) was the top-selling SUV for the month, finishing clear of the Nissan X-Trail (1498), Toyota Prado (1257), Ford Territory (1227) and the Mazda CX-5 (1190).

Top 10 Best-selling Vehicles – October 2012