In a promising start to the year for new car sales, it is business as usual at the very top of the bull-pit.

Toyota, despite coming off a difficult year of disrupted supply following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and severe flooding in Thailand, has held comfortably onto number one position with more than 14,000 sales for the month.

This performance came despite supply problems resulting in fewer than 1100 HiLux sales in January, barely a third of normal sales.

With a near 5000 gap over its nearest rival, Toyota is pretty much unassailable up there… for the immediate future, that is.

Below it, there’s a right old melee of kicking and gouging and biting going on. Holden, bloodied but unbowed, is still holding onto second place with 9061 total sales.

The Cruze has moved into third position in passenger car sales, notching up 2445 sales in January and beating the Commodore for the first time, which, with 2170 sales, has slid from second position to fourth overall.

Mazda, rampant, has claimed third place with 8479 sales for the month, up 17.8 percent on last January. At that rate of growth, it will soon be snapping at Holden’s heels in the tussle for the minor placings.

But don’t count Holden out. With the Cruze gathering momentum, and Holden refocusing its business model for growth in the domestic market, there’ll be blood on the carpet before Holden relinquishes its place on the podium.

Mazda however can’t seem to do much wrong for the moment. The Mazda3, with 4045 sales for January, is top of the pile in small cars and Australia’s top selling car overall.

The Mazda2 tops light car sales with 1,624 January sales, and the CX-7 has moved into second place in the galloping medium SUV sector with 1167 sales.

Hyundai meanwhile has slotted into fourth place with 6513 sales for January – doing well, but up just 1.6 percent and not the juggernaut flattening all before it that we’ve watched over the past three years.

It gets tougher ‘dookin’ it out’ at the pointy end of things and Hyundai’s performance in the small and light car sectors has slowed a little.

Does it have too many models? You have to wonder - it’s getting harder to work out who’s who in the zoo in Hyundai showrooms.

In fifth place, and with the tide seemingly running against it, is Ford with 5838 passenger car sales.

The brilliant new Focus is doing well (1576 sales, up 49.1 percent), but the Territory, with 804 sales, and Falcon with 931 sales (and down 19.5 percent) - arguably two of the best large cars on the market - seem to be running out of momentum.

With such a strong showroom, Ford Australia must be scratching its head.

Top 5 Australian passenger cars January 2012:

1. Mazda3: 4045 sales
2. Toyota Corolla: 3383 sales
3. Holden Cruze: 2445 sales
4. Holden Commodore: 2170 sales
5. Hyundai i30: 1986 sales.

And how’s that? Four of the top five best selling passenger cars in Australia are small cars - from a segment down 0.4 percent.

Here’s something else to think about: if you had any doubt that ‘quality, reliability and resale value’ was a key driver for car buyers, have a look at Toyota.

The company that arguably concerns itself least with design finesse, sits astride the Australian market like a colossus.

- Tim O'Brien
TMR Managing Editor

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• reply ” like !

  

  wheelspin says,
  4 months ago

  4 likes

  Toyota may be popular at the moment, but as a gen x I would never buy a Toyota. I've driven a number of their cars, and they are dull, souless, white goods that i would never spend my hard earned money on. Lack of design finesse now will hurt them in the future.
• reply ” like !

  

  toyofreak says,
  4 months ago

  1 like

  That's OK.Have a look at the number of the so called "White Goods" on the road that give years of reliable, trouble free service. Four out of Five. Maybe they haven't got the "Look at me" styling you and others desire but spend your so called hard earned where you will. Ours stays in our pockets. Ask the multi franchise Dealers service people which make they would prefer. If they want to make lots of money the non "White Goods" ones bring in heaps. The actual Service personnel generally say the make you despise is the best.
• reply ” like !

  

  grant stevens says,
  4 months ago

  2 likes

  Worldwide,the tide was already starting to turn against toyota before the natural disasters hit.GM was no1 for 77yrs in a row...
  • reply ” like !

    

    Dreamer says,
    3 months ago

    Are you American? Who's own GM? Why should you proud of it?
    
• reply ” like !

  

  Roger says,
  4 months ago

  Supply problems with Hilux?
  I find that a bot hard to believe, its not made in Japan so why did they have supply difficulties. I know Toyota have a great reputation for reliability and quality, but the HiLux is inexcusable with features like a 4 speed automatic and 4 star ANCAP. No one should put up with that these days and I had assumed it was only its popularity that had previously kept it high on the desirability list (that and the fact it looked good). I thought maybe vehicles like the VW Amaroc and Ford Ranger that are so much better AND cheaper perhaps have made people see sense and not buy Hilux.
  • reply ” like !

    

    Mike Stevens [TMR] says,
    4 months ago

    2 likes

    Hi Roger,
    
    The Australian-delivered HiLux is built in Thailand as you know, and Toyota suffered production halts there during last year's floods (along with Honda, the new Ranger/BT-50, etc).
    
    For Toyota in 2011, it was something like 80,000 fewer vehicles out of Thailand than expected, if I recall.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Mike.
• reply ” like !

  

  Roger says,
  4 months ago

  3 likes

  Its interesting seeing the Cruze perform. The Focus and Mondeo are significantly superior vehicles based on press evaluations. It seems the "made in Oz" really carries credibility. The Falcon is a technically superior car to Commodore, but just doesn't sell. It will be interesting to see how the Ecoboost Falcon does. With significantly better performance and economy than the smaller engined Commodore I still don't see it will sell. People really do buy with their heart. I would have to say Ford have a better line up across the range with Focus/Mondeo/Ranger really in another league compared to their Holden counterparts, but Aussies love their Holdens.
  • reply ” like !

    

    John says,
    3 months ago

    Completely agree with that, unfortunately when I bought my cruze 1.4T at the end of last year it was significantly cheaper than a focus with a decent engine (the 1.6 hasn't got the power that I want). I would have loved to own a focus but they were just asking too much at the time. But the cruze blew the equivalently priced competitors out of the water on test drive so I'm happy with it.
    
    I was also a little surprised at the mazda 2 at the top of the light car chart. It is quite dated and based on reviews there is a lot of better options out there.