Australian new car sales in February totaled 85,723 vehicles – 4,827 units or six per cent higher than February last year. For the two months so far this year, no doubt buoyed by the avalanche of new models being launched, the market is running 5.2 per cent ahead of 2010.
Last month Toyota continued its dominance of the Australian new car landscape, racking-up 14,849 sales to comfortably head second-placed Holden (9,688).
The news wasn’t so good for Ford which slipped to fifth place (6,951 sales), behind third-placed Mazda (8,689) and Hyundai (7,412).
It’s a similar story for the two months of 2012 to-date – Toyota number one with 28,914 sales, followed by Holden (18,749), Mazda (17,168), Hyundai (13,925) and Ford (12,789).
Overall, sales of large and upper large cars remain down, but the medium car segment is up by 19.4 per cent. Still, the growth is occurring in the SUV segment with small SUV sales up by a staggering 73.4 per cent and medium SUVs up by 14.9 per cent.
Several Toyota models topped their segments – Camry, Prado, LandCruiser 200 Series, Hilux 4x2 and HiAce bus - while Holden was boosted by record February performances from its Captiva SUV and Cruze small car.
Commenting on his company’s performance (out-selling second-placed Holden by 50 per cent), Matthew Callachor, Toyota’s sales and marketing chief didn’t give any concessions to rival brands for the rest of 2012.
“Toyota expects to benefit from at least six new model launches as well as significant updates to other key models,” Mr Callachor said.
Next on the agenda for Toyota is the hybrid version of the all-new Camry which Car Showroom will drive next week at the national media launch in Tasmania.
