Hilux dominates again in record July car sales

THE AUSTRALIAN car industry is celebrating record sales for July with deliveries up almost 1500 compared to the time period last year, according to VFACTS figures released today.

The 92,754 vehicles sold takes yearly sales to 692,308, up 0.4 percent from up to the same period in 2016.

The increase continues to be driven by utes and SUVs, with the latter extending their gap over passenger cars with 36,979 high-riders sold, a 9.4 percent increase over last month. By comparison 35,792 passenger cars were sold, a fall of 5.9 percent from July last year.

The record July sales came despite many individual models selling in considerably smaller numbers than they did in June, when dealers offered final end-of-financial-year inducements.

The top-10 was headed by the usual suspects with the Toyota Hilux claiming top spot at 3742 sales across 4x2 and 4X4 variants, ahead of its Toyota Corolla stablemate (3208) and the Ford Ranger (3076).

Mazda 3 reclaimed fourth spot from the Hyundai Tucson, which shot up the rankings in June thanks to some generous cash-back deals, while the Toyota Camry rounded out the top-five with just a few months to go before Australian-built models are replaced by pricier imports.

The Mazda CX-5 reclaimed its top-selling SUV mantle with 2305 sales ahead of the Hyundai i30 (2123), which is yet to reach the sales heights of its cheaper predecessor.

Strong performers outside the top five include the Ford Mustang, which continues to benefit from shorter waiting periods to see sales increase by 300 vehicles versus July last year, to 919 last month.

The Mustang remains Ford’s second biggest selling nameplate after the Ranger, and dominates the Sports Car <$80,000 category with more daylight between it and the second-place Hyundai Veloster (153) then you’ll see on a drag strip.

The all-new Subaru XV crossover (1138) also had a good month, almost doubling sales over the car it replaced from last July and coming in fourth in the highly competitive small-SUV segment, leap frogging the Honda HR-V.

Holden Commodore (1633) continued to dominate the large car segment, though sales are down 12.9 percent from July 2016 to again finish just outside the top 10.

And in what must be its last gasp, the Ford Falcon accounted for just two sales after disappearing from the company’s sales website, while 92 Ford Territories were sold.

Honda managed to sell one of its $420,000 NSX supercars, the first for 2017 which follows on from the two sold in 2016.

Toyota, Mazda and Hyundai remained our top three brands while further down the list Skoda edged out Volvo to sneak into the top-20.

Top 10 vehicles, July 2017

1. Toyota Hilux - 3742
2. Toyota Corolla - 3208
3. Ford Ranger - 3076
4. Mazda 3 - 2466
5. Toyota Camry - 2385
6. Mazda CX-5 - 2305
7. Hyundai i30 - 2123
8. Toyota RAV4 - 1736
9. Hyundai Tucson -1719
10. Hyundai Accent - 1642

Top 10 brands

1. Toyota 17,931
2. Mazda 9528
3. Hyundai 7501
4. Holden 6467
5. Ford 6270
6. Mitsubishi 6020
7. Kia 4266
8. Subaru 4265
9. Nissan 4094
10. Volkswagen 3803