VFacts March..Commy 85% sales increase!!! Falcon !!!!

[csv8]

The Holden Commodore has posted its third-best result in 10 months but the Cruze has taken a hit.

THE Holden Commodore has made a surprising recovery in the March sales race with a staggering 85 per cent sales increase compared with the same month the prior year -- narrowly missing a place on the podium as the nation’s fourth most popular car. Preliminary figures show it was the Commodore’s third-best monthly sales tally since the new VF model went on sale 10 months ago, as the Holden brand overall posted a 19 per cent sales surge.



However, the sharp percentage increase is due to the Commodore posting its second-lowest monthly result ever in March last year (1606 sales). The Commodore’s tally for March this year of 2965 sales is still down compared with the 2012 figure of 3200 deliveries. But the Commodore’s old arch rival, the Ford Falcon, continued to rank well outside the Top 10, with just 640 deliveries.

The Cruze small car that is built alongside the Commodore had a tough run, with sales down 30 per cent on the same month last year -- about half the sales rate as the same month just two years ago. March is typically the second-biggest month for new-car sales as the Japanese brands have a surge in the lead-up to the end of the Japanese financial year, which closed on March 31. The sharp discounting prompts even the non-Japanese brands to compete.

Last year’s top-selling car, the Toyota Corolla, led the March sales according to preliminary figures -- but the Mazda3 small car, which was the market leader in January and February, still leads the year-to-date tally. The third-placed Toyota HiLux ute again squeezed the Commodore off the podium in March. But the Commodore still managed to outsell the popular Hyundai i30, Ford Ranger ute and Toyota Camry sedan.

The Commodore also proved more popular than the updated Mazda CX-5 and Toyota RAV4 SUVs, which ranked just inside the Top 10 sellers list for March. Preliminary figures show the new-car market continues to be in a slump, with deliveries down by almost 4 per cent.

But the downturn has been exaggerated by Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi, which have all posted massive sales slowdowns for the first three months of this year, likely because their dealer networks are still clearing cars that were declared as sold in 2013. Official sales figures for March are expected to be released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries later in the week.

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling
http://www.carsguide.com.au/news-and...02?origin=hpc1

Reminds me of the film Field of Dreams..Build it and they will come .
My wife's sister bought the i30 Trophy , last week, she drove a Focus Trend and chose the i30..why ? value for the money. What made her choose the i30 was servicing costs. i30 $219..Focus $335. 5 year unlimited km warranty, what she got for the money, $24k drive away...2 week wait for the i30 in Wait Awhile...

[GT014]

640 falcons, oh dear....

Time to fast track the FH if possible

[Pepscobra]

I have a love/hate relationship with end of the month... happy coz I get paid, miserable when I see VFacts...

[Dr Smith]

Lol, you could also headline with Falcon sales up 16% on last month and Commodore up 6%.....at the end of the day they are all ending in the next couple of years.
Prediction: Vfacts threads in 2016/17 will be very short threads.

[99AUXR]

Comparing with the same month last year? they are comparing the release of EOL product to that of next generation? What are sales compared to when VE was released?

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by 99AUXR

Comparing with the same month last year? they are comparing the release of EOL product to that of next generation? What are sales compared to when VE was released?

True. Sadly Holden cannot survive selling 5 times as much VF's.

[CyberWasp]

What vehicle in the GM line up is gonna pick up 3k sales a month when Commodore is gone?

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by CyberWasp

What vehicle in the GM line up is gonna pick up 3k sales a month when Commodore is gone?

Wouldnt be a concern for GM. They would be wanting to sell 500 cars a month making $1000 profit each, than be selling 3000 cars a month making a $3000 loss on each.

[EDManual]

Yep, agree with above. Holden must be annoyed to be selling quite a few. Ford is happy to be winding down dropping volume and losing less money. All capital/tooling works are already good as written off in both cases so paying back with volume doesn't help. Less sales the better for them both sadly.

[DanielXR8]

Originally Posted by EDManual

Yep, agree with above. Holden must be annoyed to be selling quite a few. Ford is happy to be winding down dropping volume and losing less money. All capital/tooling works are already good as written off in both cases so paying back with volume doesn't help. Less sales the better for them both sadly.

For the last few years on here some have been lauding that Ford must be highly profitable because they sell less cars. Indeed the less they sold the more they made - if this cocked up theory was to be believed. Of course once you have trimmed the fat, they you are just cutting into the muscle. Now the story has changed to Ford not being able to sell as many cars is smarter again, because they lose less money. As if this whole screwed up scenario was some actual plan and poor GM could only have wished to have so few customers.

Here is my thoughts. If Ford could swap Falcon sales volumes with Holden tomorrow, they would do it in a heart beat. If they could swap sales volumes with Mazda or Toyota, they would do that too. They are in the business of mass production and the sale of cars and the dwindling sales of Falcon and Fords market share haven't changed that.

They are selling less Falcons because Falcon is dieing and Ford as a brand in Australia is struggling. It isn't some brilliant marketing or accounting stroke. Its a division of a multinational company that screwed up and is paying the piper.

It didn't value its customers, didn't fix its dealers, aimed for good enough instead of best in its local product, sometimes in direct conflict with its own engineers and kept a corporate culture two decades past when it should have been forcibly changed at the end of redundancy notices if necessary. The price for all of this is the end of Ford Australia as we have known it for decades.

Its not clever marketing and it certainly isn't a newly discovered secret to making corporate wealth. In a couple of years a lot of Australians will pay the price for a company that didn't evolve and meet its customers, so it lost them.

[Whistlr]

If making good cars was synonymous with knowing how to sell then Falcon would have matched Commodore's sales all these years. Which is why I think the new Falcon will also be a sales flop, sadly.

[bobthebilda]

http://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/h...403-36047.html

Holden has defied any backlash against the closure of its local manufacturing operations with its strongest sales since the announcement in December, leapfrogging Mazda as the second most popular brand in March according to official VFACTS new vehicle sales results released today.

The Aussie car maker sold 9851 new cars in March with strong results for its Commodore large car and range of SUVs, defying a continued downturn in overall vehicle sales with double digit growth.

But although the Commodore remains the fourth most popular new car in Australia – both in March sales and for the first quarter of the year – Holden’s result can’t stop Toyota’s relentless march as the country’s top-selling brand.

The Japanese car maker dominated the March sales figures with five of the top 10 vehicles, selling almost twice as many new cars as closest rival Mazda.



Its Corolla was the best-selling new car last month with 4086 sales - closing the gap to the Mazda3 as the most popular car so far in 2014 by 500 units - with the HiLux ute in third place (8997), the Camry in seventh (2085) and the RAV4 (1888) and recently facelifted Prado SUV (1719) in ninth and tenth respectively.

Toyota sold a total of 18,725 new cars in March to take the top spot, ahead of Holden, Mazda (9203), Hyundai (8606) and Ford (7037). The dominant result took its yearly total to 48,121 units with Holden closing to within 300 cars of overtaking Mazda for second place with 27,419 sales to the end of March for the Aussie car maker compared to 27,785 for the Japanese brand.

According to the VFACTS figures, 97,267 new cars were sold last month – just 133 units or 0.1 percent less than March 2013 – to bring the total year-to-date market up to 266,370 new car sales, a 2.4 percent drop (6678 units) over the same period last year which set the pace for an all-time record sales of 1.13million new cars in 2013.

Small cars, SUVs and workhorse utes continue to drive new car sales while lower demand in the resource rich states of Western Australia and Queensland outweighs a slight recovery in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Despite the positive sales results for Commodore and Camry, which have seen the large car segment grow by 15.6 percent in comparison to the same period last year, it cannot hide the fact 2014 is worst start to the year for locally-made vehicles which have fallen to less than 10 percent overall market share (9.6 percent) for the first time.

2014 New Car Sales: March

Top 10 brands

1. Toyota 18,725

2. Holden 9851

3. Mazda 9203

4. Hyundai 8606

5. Ford 7037

6. Nissan 6014

7. Mitsubishi 5432

8. Volkswagen 4613

9. Subaru 3812

10. Kia 2762

2014 New Car Sales: Jan-March

Top 10 Brands

1. Toyota 48,121

2. Mazda 27,785

3. Holden 27,419

4. Hyundai 23,560

5. Ford 20,128

6. Nissan 14,725

7. Mitsubishi 14,255

8. Volkswagen 13,037

9. Subaru 9984

10. Kia 7637

2014 New Car Sales: March

Top 10 new cars

1. Toyota Corolla 4086

2. Mazda 3 3587

3. Toyota HiLux 3105

4. Holden Commodore 2967

5. Hyundai i30 2767

6. Ford Ranger 2300

7. Toyota Camry 2085

8. Mazda CX-5 1932

9. Toyota RAV4 1888

10. Toyota Prado 1719

2014 New Car Sales: Jan-March

Top 10 new cars

1. Mazda3 12,117

2. Toyota Corolla 10,332

3. Toyota HiLux 8997

4. Holden Commodore 8108

5. Hyundai i30 7625

6. Ford Ranger 5818

7. Mazda CX-5 5537

8. Toyota Camry 4983

9. Toyota RAV4 4906

10. Ford Focus 4789

[Focused]

Interestingly enough, people out there in non-car world seem to thin that Ford and Holden have already closed down and are surprised when you tell them that the Commodore and Falcon are still being built.

I must admit that I'm happy that the Cruze isn't selling well. While I hoped it might sell OK for the Adelaide workers, there really is no justice in it selling because it's a crap car. The Focus, 3, Golf and Corolla are vastly superior and deserve far bigger slices of that segment.

[csv8]

Good to see the Focus in the top 10..

[russellw]

The first set of graphical stats are now available in the Tech Portal.

Cheers
Russ

[russellw]

The second set of graphical stats has now been uploaded to the Tech Portal.
Yet to come is the first quarter segment summary.

Cheers
Russ

[Syndrome]

Nothing surprising about these latest figures. All going according to plan.

[Focused]

Great to see the Ranger doing well. I imagine they'd have fairly good profit margins too, especially if compared with the (second best seller) Focus.
Nice to see it outsell the Navara, Triton and Colorado too.

I wonder how the new Klugar will affect the Territory's sales? Apparently Toyota can't get many of them in (high demand overseas) so hopefully people won't wait and jump into a Territory. BTW I saw my first new Klugar in the metal the other day and it looks nicer in the metal than in the pics. Like many of Toyota's recent new cars, they were a shock initially but I've grown to like them.

[russellw]

The Segment Analysis for Quarter 1 2014 is now completed.

Cheers
Russ

[MrZ]

Hi Russ, your charts are missing the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Honda Odyssey. Also, your photo of the Odyssey is of the North American model.

[russellw]

Originally Posted by MrZ

Hi Russ, your charts are missing the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Honda Odyssey. Also, your photo of the Odyssey is of the North American model.

.. and the Jeep Grand Cherokee is an SRT8 - big deal. The images are only for reference and now I remember why I didn't bother to include them most of last year.

The two missing items have been added to their respective charts.

Russ

[Joe5619]

I still think the Focus & Fiesta are Ford's worst performing models.. They are the models that will make or break Ford in 2016 & beyond. They need to be doing better IMO!! They are about 1/3 of the segment leader. When Ford get these 2 models to fire, Ford will be back to number #1 in Australia!!

[Wretched]

Focus and Ranger doing well as they should, true world class cars.
Pity Fiesta doesn't sell in the same numbers, it is a decent car.
Ford need the new Mondeo now.
Ford sales will pick up once they get the complete range.

[XR Martin]

Originally Posted by Wretched

Focus and Ranger doing well as they should, true world class cars.
Pity Fiesta doesn't sell in the same numbers, it is a decent car.
Ford need the new Mondeo now.
Ford sales will pick up once they get the complete range.

Mondeo wont make a difference.
Look at the sales of the Mazda 6 for example, ~500 a month.
New Mondeo wont sell much more than what the current model is selling.(300)

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Mondeo wont make a difference.
Look at the sales of the Mazda 6 for example, ~500 a month.
New Mondeo wont sell much more than what the current model is selling.(300)

That may be the case but it is a brand new model that has world wide recognition.
It is (like its predecessor) a good looking car that is sure to get people into dealers. It may or may not sell in big numbers but if it helps get people through the door and look at the Ford range then so be it.

[csv8]

Sad to say, Holden are providing what people want and in their price range. Which, they might be losing on. Tech, yes, wagon, yes, V8 in all models, except Evoke, yes. As I said before, " Like in the movie, Field of Dreams, Kevin Costners character says " build it and they will come." now, crap on me for having an honest opinion on Holden. Its so sad FORD lost the plot with the Falcon......

[JG34JA]

Yep, build it and they will come, you can also get country pack suspension on an Evoke wagon, which would have been handy for me today on some unsealed rock/sand midwest back roads. Good on them for providing the range in a RWD Australian car.

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by csv8

Its so sad FORD lost the plot with the Falcon......

Not correct. Once Ford announced "Ford 2000" the Falcon was an orphan and was on borrowed time. Dearborn clearly directed it's Australian subsidiary on what to do and that was to spend as little money as possible. This made the car less competitive with each model updated as the guts were ripped out of the car with the intention of directing Falcon buyers to other Ford products. This process started in the mid 1990s when Ford sold the Taurus in Australia. If it wasn't for the late Geoff Polities the Falcon would have already been dead and buried by now. There has been much evidence for many years that Dearborn no longer wanted to build cars in Australia and have been working towards the eventual shut down of local production. Which is a slap in the face for Australia as this was the first country outside North America to have a Ford assembly plant and Ford was the number one car maker in this country prior to the release of the Holden 48-215 plus a number of times between the 1970s and 1990s.

[johnydep]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

Not correct. Once Ford announced "Ford 2000" the Falcon was an orphan and was on borrowed time. Dearborn clearly directed it's Australian subsidiary on what to do and that was to spend as little money as possible. This made the car less competitive with each model updated as the guts were ripped out of the car with the intention of directing Falcon buyers to other Ford products. This process started in the mid 1990s when Ford sold the Taurus in Australia. If it wasn't for the late Geoff Polities the Falcon would have already been dead and buried by now. There has been much evidence for many years that Dearborn no longer wanted to build cars in Australia and have been working towards the eventual shut down of local production. Which is a slap in the face for Australia as this was the first country outside North America to have a Ford assembly plant and Ford was the number one car maker in this country prior to the release of the Holden 48-215 plus a number of times between the 1970s and 1990s.

Polities did not save the Falcon, he saved Ford. The Territory was his baby, he got it off the ground and proved that the market wanted a vehicle like the Territory.

Ford Australia management then slowly killed it by resting on short term success. They were too slow to bring in a diesel option, too slow to fix problems, too slow to upgrade, too slow to build an export market.

Blame Ford Australia management - lazy and pig headed. And previous Australian Federal and State governments - lazy and pig headed.

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by johnydep

Polities did not save the Falcon, he saved Ford. The Territory was his baby, he got it off the ground and proved that the market wanted a vehicle like the Territory.

Ford Australia management then slowly killed it by resting on short term success. They were too slow to bring in a diesel option, too slow to fix problems, too slow to upgrade, too slow to build an export market.

Blame Ford Australia management - lazy and pig headed. And previous Australian Federal and State governments - lazy and pig headed.

Just to fill in some blanks, the Territory was meant to get the tdi in 2006 but this was killed when Tom Gorman arrived and a petrol turbo was released instead. The locals weren't really lazy, a change in president who didn't think much of diesel and coming from the US this was his (unfortunate) belief. Add that the segment erupted with competition and the rest is history.