The Down Under car market got off to a record start to what the industry is forecasting will be another record year, writes Mike Duffy.
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A total of 61,170 new vehicles were sold in January, 2,613 units or 4.5% up on January, 2002, establishing a new record for the month.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, which released its official VFACTS audit of sales on Wednesday, also forecast 2003 sales of 825,000 vehicles.
If achieved, this would eclipse last year’s record tally of 824,309 cars and commercial vehicles.
The passenger market improved by 236 vehicles (0.6%) over the same month last year while the sports utility market increased by 656 units (6.4%).
Biggest increases were recorded in the commercial segments. Sales of light trucks increased by 1,432 (18.8%) while the stand-out gains were booked in the heavy commercial market – up by 289 units or 29.2%.
GM affiliate Holden started the year as it finished last year in No 1 spot – despite a change in fortunes for archrival Ford which celebrated a resurgence in sales of its big car, the BA Falcon.
Holden’s Commodore went into its sixth consecutive year as the nation’s best selling car with 5,337 sales for 43.8% of the large car market.
The new Falcon line-up clearly won back former Ford faithful to the BA model update and managed 4,325 registrations to get within 1,012 units of the Commodore – the closest gap for years.
Ford is looking to put on additional weekend shifts at its Broadmeadows assembly plant in Melbourne to try to build sufficient vehicles to challenge the big Holden.
Holden snared 20.1% of the January market with 12,316 sales – just 318 vehicles to the good of Toyota which started the year with a market share of 19.6%.
Ford took third place with 7,793 sales for 12.7% of total sales and Mitsubishi was fourth with 5,218 sales for a market share of 8.5%.
The Toyota Echo (Yaris/Vitz) was the best selling light car capturing 18.3% of the segment.
The small car market was a fascinating contest between the Opel-built Holden Astra and Toyota’s Corolla with the GM car scoring a narrow points victory: 2,558 to 2,553 units.
The recently launched Mazda 6 monstered the medium market, claiming a 30% share, while the Commodore, as noted earlier, took 43.8% of large car sales.
Toyota’s Tarago (Previa) was the best selling ‘people mover’ (Australia-speak for minivan or MPV) and the home-grown Holden Monaro – soon to be sold in the US as the Pontiac GTO – was the top selling sports car – but only eight units ahead of its European sibling, the Astra convertible.
The Holden Statesman took the honours in the prestige segment while the BMW 3 series beat the Mercedes-Benz C-class into second spot.
Top 10 Australian car brands in January:
1 Holden 12,316 20.1%
2 Toyota 11,998 19.6%
3 Ford 7,793 12.7%
4 Mitsubishi 5,218 8.5%
5 Mazda 3,860 6.3%
6 Nissan 3,568 5.8%
7 Honda 2,286 3.7%
8 Subaru 2,178 3.6%
9 Hyundai 1,913 3.1%
10 Mercedes-Benz 1,311 2.1%
