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CarAdvice Summarises Monthly Auto Sales Trends

Announcement posted by CarAdvice 09 Nov 2015

~ 2015 set for record new car sales, with Toyota HiLux up, VW down and sports cars down during October ~
Sydney Australia, November 9, 2015  – CarAdvice.com.au, Australia’s leading independent source of automotive media content, has outlined the winners, losers and new car sales trends in its summary of October VFACTS data.

The industry as a whole performed well during October with sales climbing 3.4 per cent to 94,321, the second biggest October on record after 2012. This puts the market on track to beat previous full-year sales of 1.136 million new car sales in 2013.

The new Toyota HiLux took pole position in the top 10 best-selling vehicles, with Toyota vehicles a hit generally given it had four out of the top ten best-sellers. It was once again easily the top-selling brand despite an overall fall of 2.4 per cent.

Full of the usual favourites, the Top Ten included HiLux, Toyota Corolla; Hyundai i30; Ford Ranger; Mazda 3; Holden Commodore; Toyota Camry; Mazda CX-5; Volkswagen Golf and Toyota RAV4.

The top 10 brands in order were: Toyota; Hyundai; Mazda; Holden; Ford; Nissan; Mitsubishi; Volkswagen; Subaru and Honda.
Small passenger cars, such as the Corolla, i30 and Mazda 3, remained the top overall segment despite a 10.2 per cent drop, ceding ground to small SUVs which were up by 37 per cent. Other fast-growing segments were people-movers (up 35.3 per cent), mid-sized cars (up 8.3 per cent) and SUVs of almost every size and price.

Interestingly, sports cars were down 23.6 per cent, though the just-launched Mazda MX-5 bucked this trend significantly in its category.  The high-end sports car market (>$200k) also underwent an increase of 8.1 per cent on October 2014.

Reflecting on the 2016 trend, registrations in WA (8534, the fourth-biggest state) and NT (785, the smallest market) went backwards, by 10.5 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. All other states/territories grew, comprising NSW (31,196); Victoria (26,503); Queensland (18,246); South Australia (5825); Tasmania (1719) and ACT (1513).

As usual, Australia’s top source of vehicles was Japan with 27,507 imports (up 2.6 per cent), followed by Thailand (21,211, up 17.4 per cent); South Korea (12,214, up 16.7 per cent); Australia (7150, down 6.9 per cent); Germany (6836, down 3.6 per cent) and the US (4137, down 22.6 per cent).

Interesting facts:
  • Fiat Chrysler Automobiles staple brands Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat and Jeep all fell double-digits.
  • It was not a good month to be French. Citroen (69, down 43 per cent), Peugeot (332, down 17 per cent) and Renault (798, down 26.2 per cent) all went the wrong way.
  • Mercedes-Benz went backwards (down 16.9 per cent) for the first time in a long while.
  • Huge discounts from Volvo saw its sales more than double to 469.
  • The Audi Q5 still dominated the SUV Medium > $60K segment, with 407 sales, despite the stop-sale of diesel versions

A handful of vehicles recorded the dubious distinction of just one monthly sale, being the (soon-to-be-updated) Citroen DS3; axed Fiat Panda; axed Great Wall V200 4×2; Infiniti Q60; the Lamborghini brand; Lotus Elise; a Nissan Dualis; and Volkswagen Passenger Caddy.

Finally, Volkswagen sales were down 6 per cent last month compared with October 2014 to 4480 units. It’s the first time Volkswagen hasn’t achieved year-on-year growth since December 2014, and it’s the brand’s biggest deficit since November 2014.

October was the first full sales month with ‘dieselgate' in national and global headlines, with the story breaking in September. However, much of VW’s sales drop came from commercial vehicles in runout, not affected by any diesel engine issues.

“The CarAdvice team examines and drives every new car all day, all month, all year so it’s always fascinating to see the winners and losers each month by sales to see how Australians are deciding,” said CarAdvice Associate Publisher, James Ward.  

“We’re an opinionated bunch so there’s always plenty of debate internally about the reasons, whether it’s new product releases, reaction to the economy, house sales, time of year and of course, manufacturer advertising campaigns.”

For more news and views on the October VFACTS data, please visit  http://www.caradvice.com.au/393712/vfacts-new-car-sales-october-2015-toyota-hilux-back-on-top/.  

Notes to editors
CarAdvice.com.au is where Australians turn to for the most comprehensive independent editorial reviews of new cars. With a unique monthly audience of 356,000 (Nielsen), CarAdvice is Australia’s largest independent automotive content publisher.

CarAdvice was started as a blog project by Alborz Fallah in 2006 to share his passion and opinions of new vehicles coming onto the market. Through a combination of authentic, compelling content, owner reviews, videos and independent advice, CarAdvice has now grown to a team of over 30 experts at its offices and test garages in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.  

CarAdvice’s team continually reviews all new models to ensure Australians can choose the best vehicle for their specific needs – whether they’re family friendly wagons, work utes, eco-friendly run-arounds or luxury cars.

For more information, please visit www.caradvice.com.au

Media contacts:
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