VFACTS: Ford, Holden: A Tale Of An Australia Lost

There was an event of great moment last month. It may have seemed then a temporary aberration, but is this month now confirmed.

It happened silently; the tapping of data-entry keys recording new vehicle registrations its only soundtrack.

Perhaps few saw the 'totality' of the moment, of a new picture now described by multiple small shifts.

But it’s there in the VFACTS for March 2013. They show that the transformation of the Australian motoring landscape that has been occurring for two generations is now complete.

And the notion of an indigenous Australian car - uniquely ours, uniquely Australian - is now lost. It’s there, but barely. The Australian car parc is now indistinguishable from a global one.

And here are the top ten models.

VFACTS Vehicle Sales March 2013: Top Ten Best-selling Models

Commodore came in at 11th with 1600 sales. Add in ute sales of 433, and it would sit in seventh place.   

In this top ten, eight cars have been gifted the competitive advantage of a 100 percent revision in the currency in the past ten years; only the Holden Cruze and Toyota Camry compete largely without it (notwithstanding the smaller benefit each accrues from imported parts and components used in manufacture).