VFacts June 2012

[Mr_Magoo]

Good to see some positive news for Ford:

he car industry set a new monthly sales record last month. New-car buyers helped drive the best June sales – and best month – on record.
The result comes just a day after capital city home prices posted their largest monthly increase in two years, reflecting an economy on the rebound.
But as motorists embraced small cars, utes and SUVs the Holden Commodore – Australia’s favourite car for 15 years in a row until the end of last year – slipped to sixth place for the first time in the history of the nameplate.
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The new-car market was up by at least 14 per cent on June 2011, with a tally of about 110,000 sales according to preliminary data. Official figures are released tomorrow.
The previous June record – also an all-time monthly high – was set in 2010 with 108,722 sales.
The Toyota HiLux was the top selling vehicle for the third month in a row for the first time ever – and only its eighth monthly win – with 4300 sales.
Sales for market leader Toyota were up 73 per cent in June compared with the same month last year – but the figures are skewed due to a lack of vehicles this time last year because of the Japanese tsunami.
The top-selling passenger car was the Mazda3 (3900) for the sixth month in a row, narrowly ahead of the Toyota Corolla (3800).
The locally-made Holden Cruze followed in fourth place (3057) but Nissan’s Navara ute made it into the top five for the first time with 3037 sales, just 20 sales shy of Cruze.
Nissan’s record performance – believed to be the best sales month in 20 years since it ceased manufacturing and became a full importer – pushed the Holden Commodore back to sixth place (2700).
Sales of the Commodore were down by 29 per cent compared with the same month last year.
But Holden in general also had a shocker, down 17 per cent on same month last year largely due to weak sales of the Commodore and slow arrival of Colorado ute supplies.
Indeed, Isuzu’s D-Max (a twin under-the-skin to the Holden Colorado) narrowly outsold the Holden example (911 to 899 sales) despite Isuzu having a much smaller dealer network.

Ford was down 0.8 per cent compared with June last year and posted 9100 sales – but had a couple of rays of light.
The Ford Territory SUV achieved its highest sales in five years (June 2007) with 1800 orders, although the Mazda CX-5 was the country’s top selling softroader for the second month in a row (1955 sales).
The Falcon sedan (1400) and ute (600) posted their best results all year, and the Ranger its best result in two years as supply continues to improve.
Volkswagen had its best month ever, eclipsing 6000 sales for the first time, according to preliminary data.'
Buoyed by $21,990 drive-away deals the Golf hatchback had its second best result on record with about 2500 sales (its best month ever was October 2011 with 3337 sales).
Meanwhile, South Korean car maker Hyundai, now regularly in the top five brands outright, has opted out of sharing its sales figures before the official data is released midday tomorrow.
Car makers voluntarily exchange their sales figures on the first business day after end-of-month, up to three days ahead of the official release from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
But these figures are preliminary and final figures are subject to change.
Drive understands Hyundai opted out of the arrangement because when the figures were shared last month it was ahead of Nissan by between 50 and 100 sales – but when the official data was released days later, Nissan had eclipsed Hyundai (6966 versus 6886 for May 2012).
Typically, Hyundai has a clear lead over Nissan; this time last year it had a gap of more than 10,000 sales year-to-date, although Hyundai’s lead had narrowed to less than 4000 sales year-to-date in May 2012.
Nissan spokesman Jeff Fisher told Drive: “We did the numbers that we did. It was all reported correctly. They [Hyundai] declined to participate [this month] you’d have to talk to them about that.”
Hyundai director of marketing Oliver Mann told Drive: “We’re very happy with the accuracy of the official sales numbers reported in the monthly VFACTS report. I couldn’t possibly comment on why Hyundai no longer participates in an unofficial exchange of sales statistics with other manufacturers.”
Top 10 June 2012 – Preliminary
Toyota Hilux 4308
Mazda3 3924
Toyota Corolla 3800
Holden Cruze 3057
Nissan Navara 3037
Holden Commodore 2743
Volkswagen Golf 2500
Mitsubishi Triton 2180
Mazda CX-5 1955
Ford Territory 1800


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[anto]

Grey skies are a clearing.
Sales are Starting to head in the right direction

[turbodewd]

Great to see! Wish more Aussies would get behind the local product. This is why Im switching to Telstra in December and fly Qantas. Indeed I make sure I buy that Nudie OJ as well since its 100% AU oranges.

If I was forced to buy a small car...would I go the Aussie-assembled Cruze or the Focus?! Tough one! If I was in charge of fleet purchasing Id go the Cruze to be true to my philosophy.

[BHDOGS]

Good to hear for ford suck on that fat one haters

[b0son]

Originally Posted by anto

Grey skies are a clearing.
Sales are Starting to head in the right direction

end of financial year, nothing more (IMO).

[LightingBA]

Originally Posted by b0son

end of financial year, nothing more (IMO).

As much as I hate to say it this is probably the truth. if the sales figures stay around this point or increase in the next couple of months, then we can say the grey sky's are clearing IMO. Still it's a good result.

[turbodewd]

Originally Posted by b0son

end of financial year, nothing more (IMO).

Well wouldnt this affect everyone?! The Terri is in the top 10...thats good no matter how u look at it.

[jpd80]

Negative Nellies take note, Territory and Falcon are not on the scrap heap just yet and both are seeing
a good up tick and hopefully lower fuel prices will encourage more buyers back into the market place.
Still, that's close to 3,800 combined sales for the month, a good lift encouraging Ford to do more..

C'mon Ford, let's push Falcon up to Territory's 1,800 sales and Territory up over the 2,000 mark

[Brazen]

Great to see those results! Falcon and Terri really deserve it. I bet Holden must really be waiting for the VF upgrade.

Toyota must be spewing on how poorly the brand new Camry is selling, didnt even get in the top 10 even with end of financial year purchases. Not surpised though - the Camry type car with no diesel or wagon would be comprehensively outgunned by the SUV brigade.

[Brazen]

Also if you add Falcon and Terri together it thrashes the Commodore sales.

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by turbodewd

If I was forced to buy a small car...would I go the Aussie-assembled Cruze or the Focus?! Tough one! If I was in charge of fleet purchasing Id go the Cruze to be true to my philosophy.

In my opinion the Cruze in 1.4 turbo form is the better choice. The Focus isnt as good to drive as it used to be and the Cruze feels more substantial and solid on the road. Also the Aussie-assembled Cruze has much better build quality than the German built Focus, but it may improve when production moves to Thailand. The one positive Focus has is looks, I still find the Cruze to be an ugly car.

I have a brand new manual Imprezza for a week at the moment and that is a great little car.

[FacultY]

Originally Posted by Brazen

Also if you add Falcon and Terri together it thrashes the Commodore sales.

Sure but then you have to add cruze and commodore to make it fair.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Wonder if Ford gave dealers an extra incentive to register Falcon and Territory demos???

Great result for Ford, very pleasing especially the Territory!

[fordv8!]

good to see

[fordv8!]

good to see

[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by b0son

end of financial year, nothing more (IMO).

Who gives stuff.. It was a good result for a change.. Seriously you can't be that negative all the time?


And go the territory!!

[GK]

Originally Posted by Brazen

Also if you add Falcon and Terri together it thrashes the Commodore sales.

Originally Posted by FacultY

Sure but then you have to add cruze and commodore to make it fair.

No you don't. Falcon and Territory share the same platform. Cruze and Commodore of course, do not!

I believe that's the point Brazen was making. If I'm wrong, I'll stand corrected! LOL!

GK

[PepeLePew]

I don't think its unfair to add Falcon + Territory given the shared platform and Falcons MIA wagon. I'm not quite sure where Cruze + Commodores reasoning lies...

[jpd80]

Umm, can we get back to talking about sales figures..

[FacultY]

Originally Posted by GK

No you don't. Falcon and Territory share the same platform. Cruze and Commodore of course, do not!

I believe that's the point Brazen was making. If I'm wrong, I'll stand corrected! LOL!

GK

They may share the same platform but Holden still have a much higher volume coming out of there factories then Ford which makes it easier to justify keeping the plants going longer. Thats how i see it.

[Dave R]

3800 combined sales is nothing to sneeze at. It means that Ford is selling more locally made large cars than Holden is, good effort.

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by PepeLePew

I don't think its unfair to add Falcon + Territory given the shared platform and Falcons MIA wagon. I'm not quite sure where Cruze + Commodores reasoning lies...

I think he's referring to the totality of production from Australian car manufacturing plants.

[jpd80]

Territory 1800
Ranger 1783
Falcon 1431
Focus 1571
Fiesta 1056
Ute 619


Anyone have Mondeo sales?

Carpoint.com.au
Ford said Falcon sales were up across the board, with the new EcoLPi LPG and EcoBoost turbo-four models accounting for just 21 per cent of the mix.

[JPFS1]

Originally Posted by FacultY

They may share the same platform but Holden still have a much higher volume coming out of there factories then Ford which makes it easier to justify keeping the plants going longer. Thats how i see it.

Higher volume in the plant doesn't always mean a healthy bottom line, especially when you consider Holden don't have as much FAT in the profit margin on their local product compared to Ford local platforms.

Ford shifted away from the low profit sale some time ago, XT production only accounts for 5% of their Falcon production. So their model mix is at the healthy end of margins and is proving highly profitable.

Great pick up in sales for the local product which is great to see!

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by JPFS1

Higher volume in the plant doesn't always mean a healthy bottom line, especially when you consider Holden don't have as much FAT in the profit margin on their local product compared to Ford local platforms.

Ford shifted away from the low profit sale some time ago, XT production only accounts for 5% of their Falcon production. So their model mix is at the healthy end of margins and is proving highly profitable.

Great pick up in sales for the local product which is great to see!

Thanks JPFS1,
Can you see this spurring Ford on to do more with Territory and Falcon promotions?

[stevz]

IMO if there is one car which truly doesn't deserve to be in the top 10, its the Toyota Corolla. Such a blandly designed, dopey looking car which is so far behind in spec compared to the competition... it still has a 4 speed auto ffs!

[Ford_The_Win]

Originally Posted by stevz

IMO if there is one car which truly doesn't deserve to be in the top 10, its the Toyota Corolla. Such a blandly designed, dopey looking car which is so far behind in spec compared to the competition... it still has a 4 speed auto ffs!

You can say that again! It's a joke compared to the Focus, Mazda 3 etc. Seats hard as rock, bone shaking ride, and the worst sounding stereo I've ever endured. Who is buying them??

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by stevz

IMO if there is one car which truly doesn't deserve to be in the top 10, its the Toyota Corolla. Such a blandly designed, dopey looking car which is so far behind in spec compared to the competition... it still has a 4 speed auto ffs!

Yes, that really sucks...
If Ford of Holden did the same thing, the press would crucify those cars but Toyota gets a pass...

Originally Posted by Ford_The_Win

You can say that again! It's a joke compared to the Focus, Mazda 3 etc. Seats hard as rock, bone shaking ride, and the worst sounding stereo I've ever endured. Who is buying them??

I am yet to find an Asian car maker who makes a comfortable seat for a long distance trip.

[MrZ]

The Corolla used to be one of the best small cars back in the 90s. I learnt to drive in one (RACV driving school), and the instructor used to call it his "mini Lexus".

[galaxy xr8]

I suspose opinion's are like... well you know what, everyone is different, but a mate of mine compared all the small car's as he was looking for one for his wife and they settled on the Corolla, they are very happy with it and I guess many other's are to if they are doing that well.