Record breaking sales all round
January 7, 2008 by George Skentzos
With one million sales surpassed for the first time last year, car manufacturers across Australia have announced record sales and growth figures for 2007.
While high achievers Holden, Ford and Toyota topped the list for sales, this was by no means an indication of poor performance by remaining manufacturers.
Subaru Australia endured their tenth consecutive year of record annual sales, VFACTS today confirming sales of 38,445 Subaru vehicles in 2007 highlighted by introduction of new generation Impreza which is consistently outselling its predecessor.
“Subaru’s reputation as a premium Japanese brand is increasingly underlined by the number of $50,000-plus cars that we sell each year.” Nick Senior, Managing Director, Subaru Australia.
Honda is well on its way to matching Subaru’s perfect ten, today announcing their fifth consecutive year of record sales with a total of 60,529 cars sold – up 11.7 per cent over 2006.
The Civic was Honda’s best performer with 16,167 sales, closely followed by CR-V and Jazz. Honda is aiming for a sixth consecutive record year in 2008 with the introduction of the new Accord, Euro and Jazz.
Mazda can boast an impressive 22.1 percent sales growth in 2007, cementing its position as Australia’s leading full-line importer for the third year running.
Sales topped 77,734 which pushed Mazda’s market share to 7.4 per cent, eclipsing the previous best set back in 1974.
“It’s not just one model line; the Mazda2 compact hatch had its best year ever, as did the Mazda3 small sedan and hatch. The Mazda CX-7 SUV and the award-winning B-Series utility also achieved record highs.” Mazda Australia managing director Doug Dickson.
Mitsubishi recorded a strong 20.7 percent sales growth with 65,397 vehicles sold. This is despite an 11.9 percent decline in sales of the locally-built 380 sedan.
“We have been very aware of potentially high growth segments, such as SUV’s and LCV’s, and have ensured our offerings in these segments are highly competitive, attractive and affordable to consumers. In addition, we have recently introduced the all-new Lancer, which features benchmark safety standards at a very reasonable purchase price in the small car segment, which also has sound prospects for growth.” Robert McEniry, MMAL’s President and CEO.
Audi has continued its upward trend, smashing the previous sales record with 7225 new vehicles sold, closing 2007 with an increase of 25 per cent over the previous year.
This stunning growth has cemented Audi’s reputation as the fastest-growing luxury brand in Australia, up from 5777 units in 2006.
Finally, Suzuki has finished the year boasting increased sales for every model in its range accumulating to 21,575 and achieving its 20,000 sales target.
“We are confided it will attract a new legion of customers wanting the fuel efficiency of a turbo-diesel combined with Suzuki’s legendary reliability and off-road ability.” Suzuki Australia General Manager Tony Devers.
Suzuki has posted the largest overall growth with a staggering 36 per cent increase in 2007 and ending the year with a market share of 2.1 percent.
Print it: 
ford and holden have recieved growth
I thought these local companies were battling to stay alive?
I thought so too.
Ford and Holden haven’t received growth, nor does it say that in the article.
FPV had their best year according to Rod Barrett! With the new Orion coming this it will only get better for FPV……fuel crisis what fuel crisis?
If you read the article in the latest AMC……some good stuff planned.Including Candy Apple as a colour.
Yes BM, if the fuel prices are going to make the Orion a 380, why is the Commodore at the top and SUVs rising?
Candy Apple Red? Something retro in it just like the new Mustang.
Rod said he was inspired by seeing a XW GT in Candy Apple with Gold stripes..so he decided that was a colour they would be using!
Your a real Ford nut OZ do your self a favor and go buy the latest edition of Australian Muscle Car or read the the article in the news agency like my other half does sometimes!
A truly great read!
I can only assume the growth is in mostly imported smaller cars and Holden/Ford local gear isn’t selling so well..
The large car market is dying… you cannot say Commodore being number 1 seller is evidence because it isnt, becuase 80% of Commodores (and Falcons) are sold to fleets, not only are people in this category of buyers less stringent on purchasing crteria but you can almost guarrantee Mr Ford and Mr Holden are heavily discounting their vehicles to keep afloat.
To Paul:
Go to the post called “One million new cars sold in 2007″ you’ll be upset to see the figures! ;)
yes good re-direction OZ
TP you will also see where i posted that the 2nd and 3rd place in sales (corolla and hilux) are quite massive fleet sellers in themselves.
if anything i think it is toyota that is massivly discounting their vehicle in order to take a sales command.
ford are prob the worst when it comes to discounting vehicles.
my uncle use to pretty much buy fords but he sort of swung the holden way purely because holden wanted to talk the deal he wanted whereas ford didnt. and since the vehicle was part of his salary arrangement he wanted to make sure he got the best monetary deal he could.
so over 200,000 aussies bought boring cars last year.
only if toyota made cars that looked good.
So how is a 200kw Aurion or a Hulix, Prado or Cruiser un-ejoyable cars to have as off-roader.
Outside of Holden’s upper spec Commodores – i honestly can not name another Holden that isn’t bland, dull or boring.
Once again – no Daewoo has ever done it for me !!
I believe Toyota do make some good examples style wise … the Yaris, Corolla (hatch), Camry, Aurion, RAV, some Hilux variants such as the SR5, Prado and Cruiser all look OK to me.
Don’t really see an issue with them on the eyes
Andrew I agree Toyo are doing some discounting, the problem for the locals is they have 9(?) vehicles in the top 20 sellers, included the hilux there as well. They can spread the pain in a fashion. Im sorry, Holden and Ford cant do that yet, they are trying read mondeo and Holdens Daewoo range, but I dont think they are going to make it.
The corolla has about 60% fleet sales, the falcon 87% and the Commie about 81%(2006 stats) they are in trouble and its going to get worse.
There will most likely only be 2 manufacturers in this country in 10 years, its not that people wont buy them, its that profits are going to be to marginal to sustain operations.
This is a win to nobody, the more competition the better, like to see the 4 aussie makes financials for 2007 :(
Andrew – let me happily remind you that Holden has one of the worst reputations of all for jacking of customers for updating models and reducing prices of thier new cars.
Particularly, many private Commodore owners have been disheartened over the years when they purchased a late model Commo just to have it superceeded with an upgrade soon after or a discount freenzy in order to boost or maintain sales.
And i love your discount policy regarding Toyota – yeah they may be offering deals but the odds are – probably no more then say Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Nissan attempting to snare thier fair share of the market aswell.
Infact – i reckon Ford will be going real lean on thier new Ranger fleet.
That said – those sales are highly motivated on merit aswell.
A winning combination that others just don’t have.
James – as published by DRIVE … Corolla sales are approx 60% PRIVATE not fleet while the Commodore and Falcon are approx 80% fleet.
Guys if Toyo Au is struggling, then the others are hurting a lot worse, this is an ongoing problem, Mits felt it first and now its filtering down. Return on investment simply isnt there, look at trends over 5 years, not just one year big profits :(
Might have got that the wrong way round man, apols if thats the case #!@#!$!@#$
stand corrected mikka, corolla is only 40% fleet sales, though those stats are marginally historical now. Ouch, thats a huge difference, wouldnt mind seeing the camry and aurion stats, anyone have those?
Holden/Ford seem to be doing the discount thing to gain sales from the comments made above. Here in Euroland this has been common for years. Ford & GM amongst others register new cars to boost sales figures then sell them on as heavily discounted ‘nearly new’.
The only people to gain from discounting is the bulk fleet buyers. Its not fair on the privateers or really the manufacturers (but then thats their fault for discounting)
Sounds like a Toyota v Holden scrap is about to commence after reading the above. I’m off to look at the Holden website to prove a point.
Mikka,
i think what you just described about holdens marketing is the very secret to their high selling commodore.
if only ford learned to slap a new grill on and call it a different series/model.
if they keep updating it people will see a need to purchase again (to keep up with the jones).
for eg fords Ba series and on has always stayed ahead of holdens offering even when holden throws in little update models.
so why does holden sell more then? because they have a new model to inspire buyers more often
James,
the reason i see toyota will be the first to suffer he is because they have a lot more riding on the Aussie auto industry as they are export focused.
ford has kept to themselves a bit more and therefore are not as influenced by the price of eggs in china where as toyota and holden are (but more so toyota)
toyota has already threatened the govt that they will pull up stumps if new tax plans go ahead
Andrew, yes toyota has done that, and why?
Return on investment, its that simple, if they cant make a dollar in AU, they will build elsewhere where they can. Now take it a step further, if toyo pull out cause there is no money in building vehicles in AU, the others will follow in due course.
James,
the biggest thing with toyota pulling out is the export market.
they arent here to solely build and sell cars to australians.
they are building in one economy and selling in another therefore if conditions change in one it really doesnt become beneficial anymore.
whereas ford pretty much build AND sell in the same economy.
toyotas term here is dependant on the aussie dollar more so than the other makes
there is money to be made building vehicles in OZ if you are not exporting them.
its a totally different ball game when you are set up here pretty much to solely export like toyota is. they didnt come here to sell cars and make money out of the aussie auto market. they came here because it was effectively a cheap way to make cars that could be sold to the rest of the world
the thing id though toyota
Andrew,that is the greatest load of unsubstantiated crap I have ever read,obviously made by an uninformed moron who is a Toyota hater and a person who can’t stand the thought of Toyota being number 1 not only in numbers in Australia but also number 1 (by far) in build quality and customer satisfaction.the reason Ford don’t export is because very few countries would accept the inferior build quality of their Aus. built cars.