The Australian new car market made an impressive start to 2016 with 84,373 sales last month which is 2.7 per-cent up on January 2015.
Toyota again took front-running with total January sales of 12,453 units – 24 per-cent ahead of second-placed Mazda.
The Japanese giant says its strongest start to SUV sales in three years was a prime driver of its success – 4,341 SUV sales this year compared to 3,740 in January last year.
That number includes 1,094 Prados and 1,089 LandCruisers.
However it was the Mazda3 which was Australia’s number one best-seller in January with sales of 3,722 vehicles – that’s almost 1,000 up on second-best Toyota Corolla (2,758).
In fact it was a record start to the year for Mazda with 10,016 sales – beating the previous best January result of 9,411 sales in 2014.
The compact Mazda2 joined its larger stablemate (Mazda3) in topping its market segment as Mazda powered to a market share of 11.2 per-cent – its best result ever.
Hyundai ranked third with January sales of 7,001 vehicles – exactly 100 ahead of its tally in January last year.
Holden finished fourth, GM’s January total of 6,824 vehicles was down on the 6,901 recorded 12 months ago and translates into a small market share of just 8.1 per-cent.
Nissan sales were up, the Japanese importer finishing the month in fifth position with sales of 5,563 vehicles – more than 1,000 more than January last year.
And, compared to last year, Kia has booted Honda from its top 10 ranking. The Korean company sold 3,116 vehicles in January and sits just 289 vehicles behind ninth-placed Subaru.
Some are predicting Kia will solidify that ranking and finish the 2016 sales race in the top 10.
