New car sales ready to break records in Aussie market, Corolla Back on Top

New car sales hit its second-best figure of 91,331 cars sold in July. VFACTS records show the 2016 year-to-date new car sales numbers tallied 689,471 vehicles – a 2.8 per cent increase over the first seven months of the 2015 record high.

Thailand became Australia’s leading source of vehicle sourcing in July with total vehicle imports cracking 23,803 vehicles, beating Japan for the first time on 23,359 units. Thailand is also the top sourced region for Australia’s beloved light commercial ute and cab-chassis, and strong demand for passenger vehicles.

Thai-built Ranger a strong seller

Such is progress, the slide of passenger car sales continues, accounting for 41.6 per cent of new sales compared with the 44.9 per cent totalled in July 2015. SUV sales continue to surge, hitting a 37 per cent market share in July, while LCVs managed a robust 18.5 per cent.

Small cars however, were the dominant force in sales figures, toppling passenger, SUV and LCV sales with 16,787 vehicles sold last month. Medium and large SUVs achieved the next-highest figures of 12,716 and 11,264 respectively – a rise of 3.5 per cent over July 2015. SUV year-to-date increase reached 10.3 per cent of market sales.

Light commercial vehicles are selling like hotcakes

Leading marques were familiar faces, Toyota leading with 17,465 new sales giving it a 19.1% market share. Far from nipping at its heels was Mazda on a sluggish 8460 new sales, a 9.3 per cent share. A close third went to Hyundai on 7603 newbies (8.3 per cent), while Holden managed a more modest 7071 new cars to give it 7.7 per cent, and Ford came in 5th with 6894 vehicles going to new homes and giving the Blue Oval a 7.5 per cent market share.

July’s top-selling model was the Toyota Corolla which pipped the recent strong form of the fourth-placed Hyundai i30 (2216) which lagged behind the Thai-built, Aussie-engineered Ranger (2874) and the stablemate HiLux on a close 3136 sold. The Avalon-built Toyota Camry came in fifth on 2172 cars sold.

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industry’s Tony Weber said the end of financial year did not produce a market slump in July.

“The ongoing strength of SUV sales especially among business buyers is bringing a healthy momentum to the market,” he said.

July sales increased 17.7 per cent compared to July 2015, thanks to SUV, LCV and small car sales. NSW bought the most new cars on 30,219  while Victoria managed 25,517 over Queensland’s 18,445 newly-homed. Western Australians bought 8234 new cars, South Australia managed 5210 new sales, while the ACT and Tassie managed just 1486 and 1389 apiece, and the Territory only gave 831 new owners.

Comparatively, June 2016 saw 128,569 new car sold before the end of financial year. July managed 91,331, down 29 per cent or 37,238.

HiLux remains king of the cargo carriers