Australian new-vehicle market down 7.4 percent

The Australian new-vehicle market suffered its eighth consecutive month of weakening sales in November, with volume dipping 7.4 percent compared with the same month last \HDU DFFRUGLQJ WR RI¿FLDO 9)$&76 sales data released last week.

Only continued strong demand for 4x4 utes – led by a record-busting Toyota Hilux – prevented the market from a steeper decline, as once-ramSDQW 689 VDOHV IHOO ÀDW DQG SDVVHQJHU car volumes continued to nosedive.

Despite the shift into negative territory every month since April, the Australian market has managed to eclipse the million-vehicle mark for the calendar year with one month of sales in hand.

November’s sales tally of 93,860 units – down from 105,410 last year – brought the year-to-date total to 1,065,583 vehicles, representing a 1.9 percent decline on the same period of 2017.

While the ninth consecutive year of million-plus sales is in the bag, the industry will need to sell a bumper 123,533 vehicles in December to break last year’s yearly sales record of 1,189,116 vehicles.

)HGHUDO &KDPEHU RI $XWRPRWLYH ,Qdustries chief executive Tony Weber described the market conditions as ÀDW VD\LQJ WKH\ UHÀHFWHG WRXJKHU conditions across the economy.

“However, it is encouraging that sales have once again passed the onemillion mark for 2018,” he said.

SUV sales were down 1.9 percent in November, to 39,983 sales.

Passenger-car sales again fared worse, down 20.8 percent, to 29,250.

A 4.2 percent lift in light-commercial-vehicle sales, to 20,900 vehicles, helped to avert a bigger slide. This was almost entirely due to an 8.5 percent rise in popular 4x4 pick-ups, which again topped the sales charts.

The number-one seller by a comfortable margin in November was Toyota’s Hilux with 4671 units, which, with 47,834 sales in the year to date, has already smashed its annual sales record of 47,093 set last year.

$V XVXDO WKLV \HDU )RUG¶V 5DQJHU was second last month, achieving 3469 sales. Two other one-tonne pick-ups made the top 10 list for November – Mitsubishi’s Triton with 2404 sales in fourth place, and Nissan’s Navara, 1936, ninth place.

The top-selling passenger car in November was again the Toyota Corolla, while Mazda’s popular CX-5 was the best-selling SUV.

Despite a 2.8 percent decline in its sales for the month, Toyota crunched all comers to take top spot for the zillionth time, with 18,271 sales. The Japanese giant has now zipped past the 200,000 mark and is in with a good chance of beating its 2017 tally of 216,566.

Mazda, with 8905 sales, down 4.6 percent, and Hyundai, 7869, down 10.4 percent, lined-up in their usual spots – in second and third places.

The biggest loser again last month was Holden, whose sales tumbled 35.6 percent, to 5135 units and seventh place on the sales ladder.

Holden’s year-to-date sales are now running 28.4 percent lower than last year as it struggles with life as an importer.

The one-time top-selling Commodore achieved 701 sales in November, down 61.8 percent – a little more than half the sales of Holden’s Colorado, 1364.

The biggest winner among the top 10 players was Kia, with sales up 7.9 percent for the month, to 4644 sales and ninth place, thanks mainly to a 21.3 percent jump in sales of its Sportage medium SUV.

Nissan with 5330 sales, up 5.0 percent, also hit its straps, lobbing two vehicles, the X-trail and Navara, into the top-10 list.

Mercedes-benz has blamed delayed FHUWL¿FDWLRQ SDSHUZRUN IRU D VDOHV slump on its facelifted version of its top-selling C-class which achieved just 183 sales last month – down 71.8 percent.

Limited supply of A-class did not help either, as Mercedes sales declined 33.9 percent for the month.

However, its 1819 passenger and 689 YHKLFOH WRWDO ZDV VXI¿FLHQW WR out-point arch rivals BMW, 1637 sales, and Audi, 1440.