April VFACTS

The Hyundai 130cw

The car sales slide continues, with vehicle sales in the month of April down on last year by 70,579 units, or 20.3 percent.

April was also 11,685 down on last months results.

There were some good figures for some manufacturers:

The Mazda 3 bettered the Corolla by 118 units to take second place behind the Holden Commodore, which is still hovering in the top spot despite an 11.2 percent fall in 2009 YTD sales compared to this time last year.

"Now more than ever before Australians are spending their hard earned money wisely," said Mazda managing director Doug Dickson .

"New car buyers want top-notch features and state-of-the-art safety equipment in the best looking and best-priced package.

"With a great new look and standard features like Dynamic Stability Control and Satellite Navigation our New Generation Mazda3 delivers just that.

"For as long as we are launching cars with the same impressive value story, Australian new cars buyers will continue to place Mazda at the top of their shopping list."

The light car segment continues to boom with the Mazda2, Holden Barina, Suzuki Swift and Kia Rio all featuring in the top 20. And Hyundai hit the top five with the i30 and new 130cw, and has posted a sales increase every month this year.

"April's results send a strong signal that the Hyundai brand is breaking old prejudices and winning new customers with a world class multi-award winning range of product that offers consumers outstanding value, low cost of ownership, as well as high levels of safety technology," commented Kevin McCann, Director of Sales and Marketing at Hyundai.

And Chrysler Australia finally had some positives to spin, with the Dodge brand up 25 percent YTD, the Jeep Cherokee up 44 percent YTD, and the Chrysler Grand Voyager leading its segment with a 19 percent rise YTD.

The Ford Falcon has increased by 3.2 percent this year, up a further 238 units in April and came in just behind the omniscient Toyota Corolla. As a result, Ford gained 0.7 percent market share for the month while Toyota fell 1.6 percent.

APRIL VFACTS, sales and previous rank

1. Holden Commodore 3177 (1)
2. Mazda 3 2503 (3)
3. Toyota Corolla 2385 (2)
4. Ford Falcon 2228 (4)
5. Hyundai i30 1491 (8)
6. Toyota Yaris 1395 (5)
7. Hyundai Getz 1307 (6)
8. Subaru Forester 1239 (11)
9. Toyota Camry 1092 (7)
10. Mitsubishi Lancer 1017 (10)
11. Subaru Impreza 1008 (15)
12. Toyota Kluger 901 (16)
13. Toyota Aurion 895 (13)
14. Toyota RAV4 885 (17)
15. Kia Rio 879 (25)
16. Mazda 2 850 (18)
17. Suzuki Swift 833 (21)
18. Holden Astra 820 (20)
19. Holden Barina 792 (22)
20. Toyota Prado 777 (14)

SALES BY MARQUE, Market share, and YTD

1. Toyota 13,033 20.4 20.7
2. Holden 7829 12.2 12.6
3. Ford 6836 10.7 10.0
4. Mazda 5121 8.0 8.7
5. Hyundai 4136 6.5 6.1
6. Nissan 3724 5.8 5.9
7. Mitsubishi 3145 4.9 5.9
8. Honda 3000 4.7 5.3
9. Subaru 2999 4.7 4.4
10. Volkswagen 2160 3.4 3.3