Top-selling passenger cars for March 2018

Mitsubishi has surprised the Australian car industry by taking third spot on the sales ladder from Hyundai after a strong March, with the ASX small-SUV leaping from 902 registrations in February to 2337.

It was thought the ASX’s drop in sales last month was due to the arrival of the newer, similarly sized Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, but the latter managed only 534 sales in March compared to 644 in February.

The Mitsubishi Triton (3109) also sold well enough to be the fourth most popular vehicle after the Toyota HiLux (4348), Ford Ranger (4064) and Toyota Corolla (3218).

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It was also a good month for Nissan, whose X-Trail became the biggest-selling SUV with 2504 sales, up from 1622 in February, knocking off the seemingly invincible Mazda CX-5 (2261).

The spike in Nissan and Mitsubishi sales could be due to March 31 being the end of the Japanese financial year, prompting those companies to ship more stock, whose registrations here, even as demo models, count towards sales figures.

Holden may be wishing it had more Japanese-built cars in its line-up, with its first full-month of new ZB Commodore sales netting mixed results. GM’s Aussie arm moved 5116 cars, but was overtaken by Subaru (5195) and Volkswagen (5173) to leave Holden squeezed into last spot of the top-10 narrowly ahead of Kia, which had 5084 vehicles registered.

Things were a bit more positive for the Commodore nameplate. March represented the ZB’s first full month on sales, and it accounted for more than half of the 990 Commodore sales (the rest being VF’s in runout), easily making it the biggest-selling large car. It also outsold its medium-sized competitors with the exception of the Toyota Camry (1416).

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All-in-all, Australia’s new vehicle market grew in March with 291,538 total sales, a jump of 1.5 percent compared with the same month last year, thanks to notable sales gains in compact and mid-size SUVs.

Compact SUVs climbed 32.8 per cent compared with March 2017, while medium SUVs increased sales by 10.1 per cent.

Top -10 manufacturers, March 2018

1. Toyota 18,878
2. Mazda 9723
3. Mitsubishi 8810
4. Hyundai 8443
5. Ford 6687
6. Nissan 6191
7. Honda 5586
8. Subaru 5195
9. Volkswagen 5137
10. Holden 5116

Top-20 passenger vehicles

1. Toyota Corolla 3218
2. Mazda3 2780
3. Hyundai i30 2719
4. Nissan X-Trail 2504
5. Mazda CX-5 2261
6. Mitsubishi ASX 2337
7. Toyota RAV4 1952
8. Volkswagen Golf 1713
9. Honda CR-V 1683
10. Toyota Prado 1677
11. Kia Cerato 1659
12. Hyundai Tucson 1601
13. Hyundai Accent 1551
14. Nissan Qashqai 1497
15. Honda Civic 1464
16. Mitsubishi Outlander 1433
17. Subaru XV 1416
18. Toyota Camry 1416
19. Mazda CX-3 1356
20. Honda HR-V 1207

Top-4 micro cars

1. Kia Picanto 484
2. Holden Spark 67
3. Fiat 500/Abarth 595 66
4. Mitsubishi Mirage 50

Top-5 light cars

1. Hyundai Accent 1551
2. Mazda 2 947
3. Honda Jazz 907
4. Suzuki Swift 816
5. Toyota Yaris 748

Top-5 small cars

1. Toyota Corolla 3218
2. Mazda 3 2780
3. Hyundai i30 2719
4. Volkswagen Golf 1713
5. Kia Cerato 1659

Top-5 medium cars

1. Toyota Camry 1416
2. Mercedes-Benz C-Class 610
3. Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class 399
4. Mazda 6 306
5. BMW 3 Series 275

Top-5 large cars

1. Holden Commodore 990
2. Kia Stinger 184
3. BMW 5-Series 115
4. Mercedes-Benz E-Class 99
5. Skoda Superb 69

Top-5 Small SUVs

1. Mitsubishi ASX 2337
2. Nissan Qashqai 1497
3. Subaru XV 1416
4. Mazda CX-3 1356
5. Honda HR-V 1207

Top-5 medium SUVs

1. Nissan X-Trail 2504
2. Mazda CX-5 2261
3. Toyota RAV4 1952
4. Honda CR-V 1683
5. Hyundai Tucson 1601

Top-5 large SUVs

1. Toyota Prado 1677
2. Toyota Kluger 1144
3. Subaru Outback 1107
4. Isuzu MU-X 833
5. Mazda CX-9 805

Top-5 people movers

1. Kia Carnival 506
2. Honda Odyssey 230
3. Volkswagen Multivan 101
4. LDV G10 Wagon 83
5. Toyota Tarago 70

Top-5 sports cars

1. Ford Mustang 705
2. Merc-Benz C-Class coupe/conv 186
3. BMW 2 Series coupe/conv 159
4. Hyundai Veloster 105
5. Toyota 86 102

Top-5 trade utes

1. Toyota Hilux 4384 (3224 4x4)
2. Ford Ranger 4064 (3467 4x4)
3. Mitsubishi Triton 3109 (2778 4x4)
4. Nissan Navara 1535 (1260 4x4)
5. Isuzu D-Max 1747 (1233 4x4)