The official VFACTS figures for Australian new vehicle registrations for July 2013 have been released, with the new Holden VF Commodore showing good promise with soaring sales. Toyota topped the manufacturer’s list and took honours with the number one selling vehicle once again.
Toyota sold 17,433 vehicles last month. Although dropping from the previous month’s 22,000 effort, it was impressive enough to squash second most popular vehicle brand by quite a margin. Holden sold 10,137, followed by Mazda (8525) regaining its third place position after losing it to Hyundai in June. Top ten manufacturers were as follows:
1. Toyota – 17,433
2. Holden – 10,137
3. Mazda – 8525
4. Hyundai – 8009
5. Ford – 6733
6. Mitsubishi – 5655
7. Nissan – 5074
8. Volkswagen – 3705
9. Subaru – 3102
10. Honda – 2746
In terms of the most popular vehicle model for July, it was the Toyota Corolla with 3945 sales. It overshadowed its regular top-spot brother, the Toyota HiLux (2971). The Mazda3 remains steady in third place. The top five vehicles for July 2013 in terms of outright sales were as follows:
1. Toyota Corolla – 3945 (up from 4196 in June)
2. Toyota HiLux – 2971 (up from 4931)
3. Mazda3 – 3464 (up from 3672)
4. Holden Commodore – 2827 (up from 2144)
5. Holden Cruze – 2467
In the Large Cars under $70,000 segment, the Holden Commodore saw a huge jump in sales thanks to the introduction of the new VF Commodore.
Holden hasn’t sold over 2800 Commodores in a month since March 2012, when 3187 drove out from showroom floors. With these high figures, Ford had little chance to compete with its Falcon, which went to just 594 new homes. The Toyota Aurion overtook the Falcon, reporting 604 sales.
In the Large Cars over $70,000 category, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class remained at the top of the class with 127 sales. Jaguar stepped up to number three spot with the XF, with June’s third-best, the Mercedes CLS, dropping right out of the top five. The top five vehicle sales figures looked like this:
1. Mercedes-Benz E-Class – 127 (down from 172 in June)
2. BMW 5 Series – 124 (up from 107)
3. Jaguar XF – 78 (up from 66)
4. Lexus GS – 46 (down from 61)
5. Audi A6 – 38 (up from 34)
Moving into the Sports Car under $80,000 category, we see the Toyota 86 remains as the clear favourite, followed by the Hyundai Veloster. The Subaru BRZ overtook dropping sales of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe for third place. The top five sellers in this category were as follows:
1. Toyota 86 – 589 (up from 409 sales in June)
2. Hyundai Veloster – 340 (down from 367)
3. Subaru BRZ – 118 (down from 154)
4. Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe – 97 (down from 196)
5. BMW 1 Series Coupe/Convertible – 94 (down from 98)
In the more premium Sport Cars over $80,000 segment, the BMW 3 Series Coupe/Convertible remained the most popular, with the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe/Cabrio slowly creeping up. The E-Class overtook June’s third favourite, the SLK, which saw big drops in sales. The top five sellers in this category were as follows:
1. BMW 3 Series Coupe/Convertible – 87 (down from 90)
2. Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe/Cabrio – 63 (up from 35)
3. Audi A5 – 59 (up from 44)
4. Mercedes-Benz SLK – 27 (down from 58)
5. Porsche Boxster – 17 (down from 22)
In the dreamy Sport Cars over $200,000 segment, the Porsche 911 stormed ahead to completely take over the class, as sales of the otherwise regular top-runners dropped. Sales of the exotic Italian supercars also slumped. The overall top five in this segment were as followed:
1. Porsche 911 – 20 (down from 23 in June)
2. BMW 6 Series – 18 (down from 28)
=3. Maserati (models not specified) – 9 (down from 18)
=3. Ferrari (models not specified) – 9 (down from 13)
4. Mercedes-Benz SL-Class – 8 (down from 19)
5. Jaguar XK – 7 (down from 8)
In the semi-sporty Medium Cars under $60,000 segment, Toyota saw a pretty big drop in sales of the Camry, going from 2652 in June to 2061 in July. It didn’t stop it being the number one in the class though. The next-best was the Mazda6, once again, reporting 762 sales (down from 796). Ford Mondeo sales remained steady (429), retaining third position.
Stepping up into the luxury Medium Cars over $60,000 segment, the BMW 3 Series is still the most popular, setting a good lead with 487 sales. The new Lexus IS also showed good interest, with sales jumping up considerably, partly thanks to the introduction of the new IS 300h hybrid (50). This put the IS in third position, overtaking the Audi A4. The top five consisted of the following:
1. BMW 3 Series – 487 (down from 719)
2. Mercedes-Benz C-Class – 355 (down from 665)
3. Lexus IS 250/350/IS F – 299 (up from 136)
4. Audi A4 – 264 (down from 310)
5. Audi A5 Sportback – 50 (down from 56)
In the very popular 4×4 ute segment, the Toyota HiLux remained as the clear favourite. However, sales did drop compared with the previous month’s figures, going from 3706 sales down to 2098 in July.
It was followed by the regular second-runner, the Mitsubishi Triton (1410). Third place was occupied by the Holden Colorado (1374), which overtook the Nissan Narava (1111). Even the Ford Ranger (1216) outsold the Navara in July.
As for the combined 4×2 and 4×4 ute sales, the Toyota HiLux remains the king. The Ford Ranger boosted itself right up into second place, while the Holden Colorado moved into fourth, ahead of the Navara. The top ten 4×2 and 4×4 combined figures for July 2013 were as follows:
1. Toyota HiLux – 2971 (down from 4931 in June)
2. Ford Ranger – 1781 (down from 2305)
3. Mitsubishi Triton – 1766 (down from 3456)
4. Holden Colorado – 1694 (down from 1914)
5. Nissan Navara – 1237 (down from 2641)
6. Mazda BT-50 – 1147 (down from 1332)
7. Izusu D-Max – 855 (down from 1052)
8. Volkswagen Amarok – 631 (down from 1113)
9. Great Wall V200 – 165 (down from 337)
10. Great Wall V240 – 114 (down from 171)
Lastly, the SUV market segments saw some changes. The Range Rover Evoque shone in its class, overtaking the popular rivals, while the new Jeep Grand Cherokee showed very strong results, easily excelling in its segment.
In the smaller categories, the Hyundai ix35 and the Mazda CX-5 took out their respective segments once again. The Mitsubishi ASX crept up in its class, moving into third place.
In all SUV segments, the top-sellers for July 2o13 were as follows:
SUV Small under $40,000:
Hyundai ix35 – 1401 (down from 2225 in June)
Nissan Dualis – 944 (down from 1766)
Mitsubishi ASX – 841 (up from 604)
SUV Small above $40,000:
Audi Q3 – 246 (down from 277)
BMW X1 – 150 (down from 182)
MINI Countryman – 38 (down from 58)
SUV Medium under $60,000:
Mazda CX-5 – 1638 (down from 2036)
Toyota RAV4 – 1521 (down from 1590)
Subaru Forester – 888 (down from 1152)
SUV Medium above $60,000:
Range Rover Evoque – 267 (down from 277)
BMW X3 – 216 (down from 238)
Audi Q5 – 205 (down from 280)
SUV Large under $70,000:
Jeep Grand Cherokee – 1196 (up from 776)
Toyota Prado – 1059 (down from 1528)
Holden Captiva 7 – 1016 (down from 1534)
SUV Large above $70,000:
BMW X5 – 295 (down from 362 in June)
Land Rover Discovery – 251 (up from 247)
Mercedes-Benz M-Class – 227 (up from 222)
SUV Upper Large under $100,000:
Toyota LandCruiser – 686 (down from 767)
Nissan Patrol – 198 (up from 183)
SUV Upper Large above $100,000:
Mercedes-Benz GL-Class – 56 (up from 55)
Range Rover – 16 (down from 19)
Lexus LX – 10 (down from 16)
Overall, new vehicle sales in Australia in July dropped considerably compared with June figures, with 90,235 total new vehicle registrations versus 118,758 in June. The figures were better than July 2012 efforts though; 86,641.
As for what fuel types buyers preferred in July, the sales figures for private buyers in terms of vehicle fuel were as follows (passenger, SUV, and light commercial combined):
Petrol – 33,244 (up from 33,020 in June)
Diesel – 11,084 (down from 16,569)
Hybrid – 382 (down from 533)
LPG – 33 (down from 67)
Electric – 9 (down from 11)
