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08/01/2012
By EWAN KENNEDY
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Sales of new vehicles in Australia during 2011 reflected the tumultuous world events of the year. The terrible Japanese tsunami and Thai floods seriously interrupted supplies of vehicles, and bad economic news from Europe created a drop in confidence in buyers.
Yet, in a very Australian manner, the new vehicle market bounced back. Despite a slow first half of the year, total sales were over a million yet again – at 1,008,437.
We are not back to the boom times of 2007, when sales reached 1,049,982, but are a lot closer than had been anticipated.
The biggest shock was that an imported car was the best selling vehicle in Australia for the first time ever (at least since car manufacture began here seriously in the second decade of the last century). The Japanese built Mazda3 pipped the Aussie Holden Commodore at the post with sales of 41,429 compared with Commodore’s 40,617.
This indicates the change in buyer preference from large cars to compact SUVs and small cars. A move that shows no sign of slowing.
Ford Falcon’s sales were disastrous, only 18,741 moved into buyers’ hands. Falcon was in ninth place overall, a far cry from the days when it was the best seller for many years. On a positive note Ford Territory is taking advantage of buyer preference for SUVs and the introduction of diesel engine and the facelift of the complete range saw an upsurge in Territory sales. The new Falcon LPG car is a beauty and may help to lift the model out of the doldrums.
Toyota was number one overall in Australia for the ninth year running, with 18.0 per cent of all vehicle sales, this was well down on 2010’s 20.7% due to supply problems. Holden was a distant second with 12.5%, Ford scored 9.0%, just a whisker above Mazda’s 8.8%, with Hyundai nipping at their heels by selling 8.6%.
The biggest improver among the major players was Volkswagen which climbed from 3.7% in 2010 to 4.4% last year, and the German giant shows no sign of slackening its sales pace.
Toyota, yet again won the sales race easily – yet failed to have the top selling car in Australia. These guys must be frustrated by this fact but won’t admit it, simply pointing out their strength is the breadth of product on offer. A point that’s backed up by Toyota having three vehicles in the Aussie top 10 – HiLux, Corolla and Camry.
Toyota Corolla was top seller in five months of 2011, including the final four months of the year when the effects of the tsunami started to fade. The Australian branch of the company may be regretting the decision to discontinue manufacture of Corolla in Melbourne in 2000, choosing instead to have a stab at the family six-cylinder market with the Avalon and then the Aurion. We feel Corolla would have been a runaway number one in Australia in 2011 if it was made here – Ah, the benefit of hindsight!
On the other hand, Toyota Camry and Camry V6 (the latter called the Aurion in Australia) are being sold in large numbers overseas and bringing in valuable export dollars.
Ford Australia may also be ruing its decision to not build its Focus small car in Melbourne, after announcing at one stage that it was going to do so.
Holden must be smiling all the way to the bank by opting to again make small cars here. Cruze sales are leaping ahead following the introduction of the hatchback to complement the sedan only weeks before the end of 2011.
May we predict that the Holden Cruze will be the top seller overall in Australia in 2012? Without sounding too parochial it would be nice to see a locally-built car holding that prestigious position. |
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