July 2007 car sales figures – big is back

Unless you’re a little odd, pawing over monthly car sales figures is about as exciting as knitting a pullover. I should know because I tried knitting a pullover after reading the VFACTS data for July and it was a remarkably similar experience. So in the spirit of fun I am going to try and make this as painless and as quick as possible.

Overall sales for July totaled 87,291 which was 8,729 more than the previous July and sees the market on track to crack the magic million mark at the end of 2007 for the first time.

As the effect of Toyota’s big spend on promoting the new Corolla dissipated, Commodore predictably wrestled back the top sellers position with 5134 VE Commodores sold along with 983 of the VZ series ute. Toyota’s Corolla found 4460 new homes (down 1430 sales on June) and Ford’s Falcon managed 3186 sales along with 1176 sales of the Falcon ute. Not a bad effort from Ford who are struggling in the lead up to the 2008 launch of the “Orion” Falcon.

Mitsubishi sold 949 380’s which is far from spectacular but all they need to stay in business apparently. While the large car segment experienced growth, sales of Toyota’s large cars didn’t with Camry and Aurion sales dropping from 2,645 to 1,990 and 2,626 to 1,925 from June to July respectively. Is bland off the boil or do these figures just indicate a sensational June for Toyota? We suspect the later.

Overall, sales of large cars in July increased by 1945 units or 18.6 percent over the same period last year so it appears that large cars are staging a comeback, despite higher fuel prices and the ever-present prophets of doom and gloom. Medium cars sales also improved with 1323 more sales or a 21.7 percent increase over the previous July. In comparison, sales of small cars were up a piddling 396 units or 3.9 percent.

"In 2006 the dynamics of the automotive market were dominated by small and light car sales but this year the sales action has been more broadly based – and the July results reinforce that trend," said FCAI Chief Executive, Andrew McKellar.

Overall, Toyota was the best-selling brand in July with 19,047, ahead of Holden (12,343) and Ford (9006). Predictably, Toyota leads the year-to-date race with 22.2 per cent share of the market ahead of Holden (14.5 per cent) and Ford (10.4 per cent). Mazda with (7.5 per cent), Mitsubishi (6.4), Nissan (6.0) and Honda (6.0) have all managed to gain market share over the same period last year.

See, didn’t hurt a bit.

Steane