In May, for the first month in a long, long time, Toyota slipped to number two in Australia’s new car sales race, beaten by Holden with exactly 71 more sales (11,115 to 11,044 for the month).
Naturally for the 2011 year-to-date, Toyota holds a commanding lead of 22,871 vehicles (72,614 sales to Holden’s 49,743).
Overall in May, total Australian new cars sales of 77,406 vehicles represented a 13.2 per cent decline over May 2010.
It was a tough month for Toyota and other Japanese brands, hit by stock shortages resulting from production interruptions caused by the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Toyota says local production of Camry and Aurion (slowed due to insufficient parts coming from Japan) will return to normal levels within a week and shipments of imported Toyotas arriving in June will be double the number which arrived in May.
Toyota Australia chief David Buttner says priority for the arriving stock will go to customers who have placed orders. “We regard the respectful treatment of our customers and potential customers as a far more important measure of success than a single month’s sales,” Mr Buttner said.
Not that Toyota is hurting too much – the brand retained sales leadership in five segments – Camry (medium cars), HiLux (4x4 and 4x2), LandCruiser 200 Series (large SUVs) and Hi Ace (bus).
Nevertheless, Holden was number one overall in May and, for the fourth month in a row, Commodore (3,504 sales) was Australia’s top-selling individual model. Holden Cruze (2,914 sales) and Holden Captiva 7 (1,010 sales) also topped their segments.
Hyundai was number three in May with sales of 7,444 vehicles, however Ford retains third sport for the year-to-date with total sales of 36,008 vehicles.
Kia set a record in May - its 2353 sales represented 3.04 per cent of the market and vaulted the Korean brand into 10th position for the month, ahead of Honda and Suzuki and just 101 vehicles behind Subaru. On one hand there’s no doubt it’s been a challenging month - particularly for Japanese brands - but equally it is true the nine manufacturers ahead of Kia in sales each have a portfolio of commercial vehicles boosting their numbers whereas Kia relies exclusively on passenger cars.
Of the importers, a special mention for French giant Renault – sales of 316 vehicles in May more than doubled its May 2010 result and year-to-date in 2011, Renault’s Australian sales are 45.5 per cent better than last year.
And specialist ute brand Isuzu Ute sold 624 vehicles in May – 73 per cent up on May 2010 and overall Isuzu Ute sales this year are 41.7 per improved over 2010. In the 4x4 segment in May, Isuzu D-Max sales more than doubled the mysterious Chinese Great Wall (the company which does not provide test vehicles to the media).
