New vehicle sales August 2015: Winners, losers and trivia

The August VFACTS new vehicle sales figures are in. Our currency may be going in the wrong direction, but strong retail campaigns saw market-wide sales grow nevertheless — up 2.9 per cent to 90,705.

Additionally, with the year-to-date (YTD) cumulative tally sitting at 761,440, we are on track for a sales record, with good growth in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland countering declines in Western Australia and South Australia.

In a familiar trend, it continues to be SUVs doing the heavy lifting. Sales of these high-riding vehicles grew 19.4 per cent in August — to 32,900, more than one-third of all the vehicle sold — while passenger cars dropped 4.6 per cent. Light commercials also fell, by 6.1 per cent.

The finalisation of August sales data will be causing a few brands’ sales departments to take to dancing in the street, and a few others to search for a comforting glass of wine.

Perhaps the most eye-catching figure — one reported elsewhere based on preliminary figures, but now confirmed by official data — is the fact that Hyundai, off the back of a massive 9505 monthly deliveries (up 10.5 per cent) finished second for the month, and more importantly leapt into third place in the YTD sales race ahead of local hero Holden, now off the vaunted podium.

The Korean monolith boasts a cumulative annual tally of 68,115 units (Holden has 67,502, with Hyundai beating it by 1635 units last month), meaning it now trails only Mazda (9166 in August, 75,113 YTD) and Toyota (14,505 for August, down 7.2 per cent, and 133,059 YTD).

The top-ten brands for August, following on from Toyota, Hyundai, Mazda and Holden, were Mitsubishi (5574, up 6.5 per cent), Ford (5354, down 22.5 per cent), Volkswagen (4794, up 17.9 per cent), Nissan (4731, down 7.7 per cent), Subaru (3361, up 15.9 per cent) and Honda (3210, up 16.3 per cent).

Mercedes-Benz (2956, up 25.3 per cent), Kia (2940, up 50 per cent), BMW (2202, up 9.7 per cent) and Audi (1901, up 20.5 per cent) were next. 

It wasn’t all sunshine, though. Beyond the declines of Toyota, Holden, Ford and Nissan, a number of other car-makers hit the skids to greater or lesser degrees, and for manifold reasons.

Notably, this included the diverse members of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles group: Alfa Romeo (down 49.1 per cent), Chrysler (down 41.4 per cent), Dodge (down 26.4 per cent), Fiat (down 57.1 per cent, though its commercial arm grew 128.2 per cent), and Jeep, once on the cusp of the top-ten but finishing down 34.7 per cent to 1716 units in August.

Maserati, imported through a different channel but globally an FCA member, dropped 19.6 per cent.

The top-selling car in August was the Toyota Corolla — also the annual top-seller — with 3050 units, ahead of the Mazda 3 on 2673. Both of these figures are down on August 2014, reflective of a decline of 13.2 per cent across the Small Car under $40K segment.

In a welcome turn of events — and thanks to very sharp deals — the Holden Commodore sedan/Sportwagon finished third on 2144 (if you add the commodore-based Holden Ute, as it is now badged, that figure climbs to 2616, almost knocking the Mazda 3 from its perch).

Fourth was the Hyundai i30 on 2098, down like its small car brethren. Given Hyundai’s strong monthly brand-wide tally, we expected a higher figure.

Next was the just-updated Ford Ranger on 2096, with the Blue Oval no doubt sharpening its pencil as it cleared stock of the pre-facelift version, one solitary unit ahead of the locally made Toyota Camry (2095). This means two of the top-six sellers in August were Australian-made cars.

Behind these were the Mitsubishi Triton (1991), and a pair of SUVs — the Mazda CX-5 (1980) and the now-discontinued, but still on runout, Hyundai ix35 (1967). Tenth was the Toyota HiLux on 1956.

Granted, the all-new model is almost here and stocks of the current car are low, but it’s remarkable to see the HiLux behind both the Ranger and Triton. At times, the Toyota ute has been the market’s top-selling vehicle full stop. Expect an imminent bounce.

Other trivia:

Top ten brands August 2015:

Top ten models August 2015:

Segment-by-segment breakdown:

Passenger cars:

SUVs:

Commercials: