Could 2007 be the first year of one million vehicle sales locally? It's been asked before, but consumers appear to have adjusted to higher petrol prices and even the large car segment is showing signs of improvement.
Don't read too much into the May sales figures, although they did show a marked improvement over the May figures for 2006 -- the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) put the monthly improvement over the previous year's at an additional 5140 units.
The year-to-date figures tell the big story. An extra 32,567 vehicles were sold YTD and that would be almost enough in itself to hit the magic million, even if sales for the latter half of '07 slump to the same levels as for '06. Total sales last year were 962,666 units, so it's close.
Looking at the individual market segments, the large cars are interesting, but in a 'Holden and daylight' sort of way. The Commodore (5001 units) outsold Falcon (2801) by 2200. Ford's market share actually improved slightly for the month, but to put that in perspective, the monthly market share was worth about eight cars' variation from the YTD share.
Aurion's market share improved substantially during May. The V6-engined Toyota rose from 15.7 per cent share for YTD to 17.2 for the month. Mitsubishi's 380 sold 841 units for the month. This is 360 less than for May 2006 and also indicates a loss of one per cent market share, relative to YTD figures. Again, don't draw too many conclusions from one month's sales, but May '07 was a strong month during a strong year, so the 380 looks to be in further decline.
After the Commodore, the best-selling passenger car was the Toyota Corolla. Helped by a burst of sales from the new 150 Series model, Corolla sold 3558 units for the month and increased market share from an average of 18.6 per cent YTD to 19.1 for the month.
The small car segment is highly competitive and the Mazda3 narrowly missed taking third best-selling car from the Falcon. Ford can take solace from the Focus (1958 units) outselling Holden's Astra (1520) by over 400 units for the month. The Astra, despite being more expensive, continues to trump the Viva stablemate (605 units) by a factor of over two to one.
Other cars in the small car segment going above and beyond the call of duty include the Honda Civic (1472 units), Toyota Prius (380 units) and Volkswagen Golf (1105 units). In the case of the Civic, market share slipped from 8.3 per cent YTD to 7.9 for the month, but it remained ahead of the Mitsubishi Lancer by three whole cars. Prius is outselling a whole raft of cheaper cars and increased market share from 1.5 per cent YTD to 2.0 per cent for the month.
The Golf, with over 1100 units sold despite its pricey-Euro-prestige reputation, is ahead of volume sellers such as the Hyundai Elantra (780 units), Nissan Tiida (934) and Subaru Impreza (859). On top of that, its market share for the month is 5.9 per cent, versus 5.0 per cent for YTD.
In the light car segment below $25,000, the Toyota Yaris (2389 units) remains king of the heap, but monthly market share has slipped from the YTD figure of 25.2 per cent to 24.7. It's still over 600 units clear of the closest competitor, the Hyundai Getz (1757 units).
Other than the Suzuki Swift (1112 units), nothing else in the segment attains four-figure sales, although the Holden Barina is close, at 928 units. Market share for both the light car segments and small cars below $40,000 dropped during the month, relative to YTD figures.
The segment for medium cars below $60,000 continues to be a wasteland, with only the Toyota Camry and Mazda6 exceeding four-figure sales (2027 and 1022 units, respectively). Both these cars lost market share for the month of May too. Holden's Epica (480 units), may have contributed to that loss of market share, in its first full month of sales.
Curiously, in the upper large segment below $100,000, the Holden Statesman (179 units) lost ground, but the Caprice (224 units) picked up share. Caprice has been consistently outselling the cheaper Statesman this year and their aggregate sales for the month nearly accounted for 60 per cent of the segment. Ford's Fairlane (145 units) and LTD (2), despite being pronounced dead, drew level with the Chrysler 300C (147 units) for the month.
Combined sales of the Toyota Avensis (108 units) and the Tarago (312) almost caught the Kia Carnival (466 units) in the segment for people movers below $55,000.
In the sports segment for vehicles below $80,000, only the Holden Astra convertible (123 units) and the Mazda MX-5 (100 units) reached three figures. Astra had a good month, with market share up by 0.8 per cent over the YTD average. The Mazda's share took a dip.
Toyota's RAV4 topped sales in the SUV Compact segment, with sales of 1146 units. Market share slipped from 15.7 per cent YTD to 14.5 for the month. Following close behind were the Nissan X-Trail (1071) and Honda CR-V (1043). Market share held steady for both these vehicles.
No great news in the Medium SUV segment. Ford Territory (1665 units) remains the top seller and betters sales of the Toyota Prado (1234) and Kluger (281) combined.
The Holden Captiva (971 units) has enjoyed increased market share -- up from 14.6 per cent YTD to 17.1 per cent for the month -- possibly attributable to the new diesel variants. It doesn't look as though Captiva is taking sales away from the Territory, however. Mitsubishi's Pajero sold 474 units, which equated to 8.3 per cent market share; down from 11.1 YTD.
For the Luxury SUV segment, BMW's X5 had a huge month, selling 401 units and acquiring 21.3 per cent of the market, nearly doubling the 11.7 per cent market share average, YTD. The additional market share for BMW came at the expense of virtually every competitor -- including BMW's own X3 model -- other than the Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg twins-under-the-skin.
Of the commercial vehicles, Toyota Hiace remained unassailable among the vans. The company's HiLux (1546 units) comprehensively outsold both the Ford Falcon Ute (1109) and the Holden Ute (1035) in the 4x2 Pick-up/Cab Chassis segment. Holden's market share for the Ute improved, with a limited edition model being heavily promoted during the month.
HiLux also topped the 4x4 Pick-up/Cab Chassis segment, with 1955 units sold. Nissan's Navara (1639 units) has been within striking range for most of this year, but market share dropped back alarmingly, from 28.3 per cent YTD to 22.4 for the month.
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