Toyota’s 2015 range
The Australian new car sales record has been broken again with 1,155,408 new passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles being sold in 2015, just over 19,000 in excess of the previous mark set in 2013.
For the 13th straight year Toyota was the market leader with a total of 206,236 vehicles including two of the top five, Corolla and HiLux. Mazda moved into second place, the company’s highest ever with 114,024 sales.
The biggest losers were Holden and Ford who each dropped one position to third and sixth respectively. Indeed Holden, with 102,951 units, just held off Hyundai with the dynamic Korean growing for the seventh straight year to record a new sales peak of 102,004.
Mitsubishi also set a new high for the company with 71,743 overtaking Ford (70,454). The latter’s position could have been much worse but for almost half of Ford’s sales being for its popular Ranger pick-up which was the fifth-highest selling model overall. Falcon’s slide continued with just 5938 sales.
Ranger pick-up accounted for nearly half of Ford’s 2015 sales
Nissan retained seventh place with 66,062 just 37 more than in 2014. Despite its emission-cheating problems Volkswagen recorded a healthy 10% growth to a best-ever 60,225; Subaru also hit a new peak of 43,600 to retain ninth place. Honda (40,100) rounded off the top ten, bouncing back from a disappointing 2014 with its best sales in five years.
Although passenger cars remained the most popular category with 44.6% of total vehicle sales, the relentless growth of SUVs saw them reduce the gap significantly jumping from 31.7% in 2014 to 35.4% in 2015. Light commercial sales remained steady at around 17.2% with heavy commercials making up the balance.
For the third straight year Toyota Corolla was Australia’s best-selling vehicle, outselling its regular rival, Mazda3, by nearly 3500 units with another close competitor, Hyundai i30, in fourth place. On either side of the i30 were two pick-ups, Toyota HiLux in third place and Ford Ranger fifth.
2015 Toyota Corolla ZR hatch
Mazda CX-5 was the top-selling SUV for the third straight year.
With the finishing post looming Australian manufactured vehicles dropped to 8.4% of the total. Japanese-built vehicles accounted for 29% of total sales; followed by Thailand (21.6%); South Korea (12.1%); with Germany the leading European with 7.6%.
There’s no doubt that the record sales have been buoyed by the excellent value offered to Australian buyers with new models frequently arriving at static or even reduced prices but with ever-increasing features and servicing costs.
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) Chief Executive, Tony Weber, commented on this when he announced the 2015 results: “The high level of choice in the Australian new car market is delivering Australian consumers’ access to high-quality vehicles at record affordability levels.
“In addition, the competitiveness of the market has seen new car buyers access an extensive range of finance options and genuine service offers that maintain the value and integrity of the vehicle.
“It is clear that there has never been a better time to buy a new car.”
