Toyota retained its vice-like grip on the number one spot as total Australian new car sales in July numbered 86,641 – seven per-cent better than July last year.
Toyota accounted for 17,780 of those sales, well ahead of Holden which posted 8,936. Toyota HiLux was Australia’s best-selling vehicle in July with 4,163 sales (24 per cent better than the second-best seller)
Year-to-date Toyota has chalked-up 123,815 sales – 58,696 vehicles ahead of second-place Holden (65,119).
Mazda had a another fantastic month – 7,951 sales to be ranked number three for the month and number three for the first seven months of 2012 with a total of 60,084. That July number was Mazda’s best-ever July result – 14 per-cent up on the company’s effort in July last year.
Hyundai maintained fourth position in July (7,607) and also year-to-date (52,913).
Same for Ford – fifth in July (6,903) and year-to-date (50,333).
As we reported yesterday, Nissan had a record-setting July. The official number of sales was 6,155 and that means sixth-pace Nissan with 46,034 sales for the year could eclipse Ford for fifth position in coming months.
Overall the trend towards SUVs continued – up 23 per-cent over July last year with sales of 4,462 vehicles, while passenger cars continued to slide and were 5.1 per-cent down compared to 12 months ago even though the light car segment was 3.4 per-cent ahead.
No doubt buoyed by the sell-out success of the Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ, sports car sales in July were 80 per cent up on July last year.
Overall, Toyota says Australians are buying new Toyotas at the rate of 580 per day – almost double the daily rate of rival Holden (306 per day).
And it’s a revitalization of the entire product range which is behind Toyota’s success. “In the past five months alone, we have introduced three models that are entirely new to our lineup – 86, Prius c and Prius v,” explained Toyota’s sales and marketing chief, Matthew Callachor. “We have also revitalized our entire range of locally produced cars – Camry, Camry Hybrid and Aurion, as well as the popular Yaris.”
