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“More than ever, it’s important to consider not only the car’s ticket price but also its ongoing running and environmental costs,” Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said.

On average, a Holden Commodore will cost $2430 in petrol to run per year and will put out 3.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide doing so. The Ford Falcon does the same distance costing $2272 in fuel and releasing 3.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The most surprising news however, was the Mazda 3, which came third, costing $1845 in petrol. Meanwhile Australia’s most popular car, the Toyota Corolla came fourth with a $1672 yearly petrol cost.

 Out of all the cars tested, the Green Vehicle Guide recommends the Toyota Yaris as the cheapest option for getting around (not including hybrids). The Yaris costs $1350 a year.

The Prius was the cheapest hybrid car to run, with a total bill $990 in fuel each year. CO2 emissions for the ‘revolutionary’ Prius where half of the Commodore’s at 1.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

For more information you can check out the Green Vehicle Guide at www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au (which ironically, is currently off-line with “Server too busy” errors).

CarAdvice recently conducted a fuel economy test with a new VE SS Commodore to find out if the era of big V8s is coming to an end. The results will be released before the end of next week.

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“Lack of education is becoming less of an issue, people are becoming more comfortable with the technology.” Mike Marshall, Power’s director of automotive emerging technologies said.

In the 2007 survey, the main reason  consumers weren’t considering hybrids was lack of familiarity with the technology, which this yeah is no longer the top concern.

What does worry consumers, however, is whether or not hybrid powertrains will pay for themselves over the period of ownership.

Another interesting find was the move away from E85 vehicles. Only 43 percent of consumers are still interested in the ethanol cars, the main concern being the affect it has on agricultural production.

 ”As agriculture starts shifting production to ethanol, prices are going up. People are starting to get that. It’s one of many solutions out there, but it has negative consequences as well, and these consequences show up in the grocery store.” Marshal said.

JD powers also released its annual Automotive Environmental Index, which indexes the top 30 models based on a number of environmental aspects including air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy.

Toyota and its luxury arm Lexus came out number one with a combined seven vehicles in the index: six Toyotas and one Lexus. General Motors which includes, GM, Chevrolet, Pontiac and Saturn had its best year with a combined six vehicles, meanwhile Ford had three vehicles.

Are you considering a hybrid as your next car?

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Currently, Peugeot manufactures over 160 individual models for worldwide distribution from the 201 to the 308.

With these historic figures in mind, Peugeot has calculated that more than 1.1 million vehicles emitting less than 120g of CO2/km have been registered by Peugeot in Europe alone since 2001.

The brand has strong commitment to the environment, in the past becoming the first manufacturer to introduce a Diesel Particulate Emission Filter as standard on the 607 in 2000.

It also plans to conduct a major reforestation project in Amazonia which, over a 40 year period, aims to help balance out carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

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For the accountants, 1,068,301 vehicles have been sold in the 2007-08 fiscal year, marking a near 65,000 increase over the previous financial year.

“The continued growth of the motor vehicle market so far this year is an encouraging result given current economic circumstances, business sales in particular have remained resilient in the face of interest rate rises, fuel price increases and general turbulence in world financial markets.” said the chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Andrew McKellar

Andrew McKellar said the FCAI is once again forecasting a million-car-year, having initially overcome that milestone last December with a total of 1,049,982.

“While there are reasons to be cautious about the general market outlook in the second half of the year, the industry remains confident that total 2008 sales will once again top a million units,” he said.

So what’s making the numbers? Surely large cars and SUVs are no longer major contributors? The single largest contribution has been from the Medium SUV segment, which has grown a massive 18.5 per cent.

Toyota takes out the top 3 spots with the Corolla coming in first with 24,415 sales, ahead of Holden’s Commodore with 23,323. The HiLux is not that far behind with 22,132 sold so far.

The Small car segment has also grown, by 5,410 sales or 4.6 per cent. Two-wheel drive Pick-up/Cab-chassis sales have increased by 4,158 sales or 12.0 per cent.

Toyota was predictably the most successful brand in Australia with 127,440 sales or 23.5 per cent of the market, followed by Holden with 67,123 (12.4 per cent) and Ford with 54,469 (10.0 per cent).

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The new i30 (1,074), iLoad (257) and Tuscon (1,138) were all models in the Hyundai range to achieve their best ever sales result.

Figures for May and June show that customers opting for the addition of ESP has almost doubled across Hyundai’s model range, from 17 percent for April YTD to 31 percent in the May/June period.

Within the business sector, customer choice for ESP Stability Control on Getz increased from 3 percent in April to 14 percent in June, 15 to 76 percent on Elantra and 26 to 58 percent on Tuscon in the same period.

“Hyundai pioneered the introduction of an ESP Stability Control option within the light car market on the Getz back in February 2006 and our recent ‘End of Financial Year’ retail campaign reflects Hyundai’s continuing commitment to make the technology available to all Australian consumers,” said Kevin McCann, Hyundai’s Director of Sales and Marketing.

Independent research conducted by Monash University indicates that ESP Stability Control can reduce the chance of injury in a serious crash by as much as 68 percent.

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It’s strongest performer was the Corolla with more than 5000 sales, closely followed by the HiLux which contributed just over 4500 to the overall total.

With the financial year ending just yesterday, Toyota also announced that it has sold more than 247,500 vehicles for the fiscal year - also an all-time industry record.

No other brand has ever sold more than 200,000 vehicles in any 12-month period in Australia.

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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.

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“Increased sales of Lexus hybrid vehicles show that higher fuel prices are forcing a rethink of the vehicles we drive, even at the luxury end of the market,” Lexus chief executive John Roca said

Lexus predicts 2000 hybrids will be sold by the third quarter. The strongest models have been the RX 400h hybrid SUV which has found 1200 buyers so far.

“While our customers can afford to pay more for petrol, the steep rise in fuel prices has sent a signal to everyone that oil is a finite resource. Lexus hybrids are widely accepted as an alternative to traditional petrol or diesel-engined vehicles, delivering real world economy and emissions benefits.” Roca continued.

Toyota’s Luxury arm has also sold over 500 GS 450h performance sedan as well as nearly 100 LS 600hL luxury saloons.

Lexus says hybrid luxury sales have been so strong that demand is currently outstripping supply.

“Lexus hybrids are clearly bucking the trend, forging a clear path towards more environmentally aware motoring without sacrificing power and driving enjoyment,” he said.

Currently Lexus is the only luxury manufacturer producing hybrid vehicles, using the technology adopted from its parent company Toyota.

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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.

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“Lexus is highly regarded as an industry leader in vehicle design and innovation and this award recognises that. Lexus continues to rate highly in the area of customer satisfaction and support. This is due to our dealer network, which strives to offer nothing but the best.” Lexus Australia chief executive John Roca

This is no easy and skewed prize to win, the award comes after vehicle evaluations from more than 16,000 vehicle owners in the UK after an average of two years of ownership were put together.

The survey evaluates 77 vehicle attributes in four different categories: quality and reliability, service satisfaction, vehicle appeal and ownership costs.

Lexus overcame 28 other car-manufacturers to take out the Gold Award for customer satisfaction, so far no other manufacturer has won the award eight times.

Participants gave Lexus 866 out of a possible 1000, well above the industry average of 803.

Additionally, Toyota’s hybrid car, the Prius, was the highest-ranking model on the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI).  The green car earned a score of 901 our of 1,000 with buyers highly satisfied with quality and reliability.

The top five manufacturers in the survey:

1. Lexus (866)
2. Škoda (846),
3. Honda (844),
4. Toyota (836)
5. Jaguar (833).

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