No slowdown yet

On another front, the slowdown I (and others) forecast for new vehicle sales definitely hasn’t happened yet, according to latest figures released by the Motor Industry Association. Says CEO David Crawford: “The anticipated slowdown in new vehicle registrations has yet to materialise as businesses and consumers continued to purchase new vehicles at unprecedented rates in February 2016. “A total of 10,313 new vehicle registrations during February eclipsed the previous strongest February way back in 1984, the only other time more than 10,000 registrations for the month of February were recorded. February 2016 registrations were 436 (4.4 percent) units ahead of February 2015, made up of 7,192 passenger vehicles and 3,121 commercial vehicles, which is also the strongest month of February on record for commercial vehicles.” Toyota maintained its margin over the rest of the sector with 15 percent market share (1,559 units), followed by Ford with 12 percent (1,266 units) and Holden with nine percent (894 units). More interesting was that the top three in the sales list were all light commercial vehicles. These were the Ford Ranger with six percent overall share (582 units), followed by the Toyota Hilux with four percent (444 units) and the Mitsubishi Triton with three percent market share (289 units). Compared to February 2015, registrations of passenger vehicles were up 1.9 percent in February 2016 (136 units). Toyota remains the market leader for passenger vehicles with 13 percent market share (915 units), followed by Mazda with 10 percent (719 units) and Holden with 9 percent market share (645 units). Another interesting stat is that the Toyota Corolla, long a leader in the sales tally, slipped back to third place in the passenger car market behind the Kia Sportage and Mazda CX-5, which were tied for first spot with 236 registrations. There were 231 Corollas sold. Compared to February 2015, registrations of commercial vehicles were strongly up by 10.6 percent (300 units). The Ford Ranger retained its position as the monthly top selling commercial model for February with 19 percent market share (582 units) followed by the Toyota Hilux with 14 percent (444 units) and the Mitsubishi Triton with nine percent market share (289 units). Year to date the Ford Ranger maintains a healthy lead over the Toyota Hilux with 1,243 registrations (20 percent) for the Ranger and 744 (12 percent) for the Hilux. The makeup of the fleet continues to evolve, and with the recent strong growth of the SUV segment, the MIA now breaks this segment into a number of individual segments. The MIA has also separated the Pick Up/ Chassis Cab into separate 2x4 and 4x4 segments as well. The SUV medium segment along with the Pick Up/chassis Cab 4x4 segments took 13 percent each of the market in February, followed by the small passenger car segment with 12 percent share.

John Oxley