Buoyed by the launch of the sedan model in February, Toyota’s Corolla was Australia’s best-selling vehicle in March helped Toyota maintain its stranglehold on the top of the Australian new car sales table.
Toyota tacked-up sales of 18,725 vehicles last month and ended the quarter more than 20,000 units ahead of second-placed Mazda. Toyota RAV4 delivered its best-ever monthly sales of 1,888 vehicles and Toyota Camry, 86 coupe, Prado, LandCruiser wagon and Hi-Ace all topped their segments.
Overall however, Australian new car sales were down in March with the total of 97,267 vehicles down by a minute 133 vehicles over March 2013. Passenger vehicles, SUVs, light commercials and heavy commercials were all down.
They’re all smiles at Mazda however with total sales for the first quarter of 27,785 giving the Japanese giant second place overall, just ahead of Holden (27,419).
In March Holden just pipped Mazda with sales of 9,851 vehicles (9,203 for Mazda). Helping those figures were best-ever March results for Mazda CX-5 (1,932) and BT-50 (1,270).
Hyundai was fourth in March with sales of 8,606 vehicles and secured fourth position for the quarter with a total of 23,560.
Ford was fifth last month with sales of 7,037 and is comfortably ahead of Nissan for fifth position in the quarter with sales of 20,128.
Strongest sales growth this year has come from the Fiat Chrysler Group which is enjoying its best start to a calendar year on record. By the end of March, Fiat Chrysler Group had achieved sales of 10,015 – 39 per-cent up on the first quarter in 2013.
The group’s Fiat brand is Australia’s fastest-growing car company with sales this year up by 531 per-cent. In the first quarter, Fiat 500, 500C and Abarth 500 outsold rivals Peugeot 208, MINI hatchback and Audi A1.
