Falcon / Large Segment
As there is no longer any manufacturing of the Falcon / Ute and Territory these models are now just fading away with some residual sales of dealer stock. Falcon can now be considered completely gone and it has been removed from some of the charts and graphs.

Mustangs sold 440 in January and this is down 24.5% on January last year.

The Commodore also is now in run out of residual stocks to register 871 sales (1,089 less than in 2017) while the Aurion sold 58 – 38 less than in 2017.

For the year to date all three models are obviously downwith the total passenger market up by 4.2% or 3,417 units.

The top sellers for this month see the top passenger vehicles juggled around a fair bit. The Mazda 3 (3,201) gained one place to regain the segment lead ahead of the Toyota Corolla (2,776) also up one with the Mazda CX-5 (2,152) up three places to 3^rd. The Hyundai i30 (1,850) gained the ten places it lost in December to take 4^th with the Toyota RAV 4 (1,780) up two in 5^th; Nissan X-Trail (1,668) steady in 6^th; Mazda CX-3 (1,582) up nine places to 7^th; VW Golf (1,583) still in 8^th; Honda CR-V (1,474) up ten places to 9^th and the Top 10 rounded out by the Kia Cerato (1,432) which gained seven spots.

Worth noting: Toyota Camry (754) dropped thirteen places to 32^nd place while the Holden Commodore dropped twenty-two places to 26^th and the Holden Astra (813) dropped twenty-eight places to 29^th after the December shenanigans.

If we were to include the 4x4 Utes in the listing, then the Ford Ranger comes in at 2^nd overall. The Toyota Hilux is 3^rd,the Nissan Navara is 14^th and the Mitsubishi Triton takes 15^th place.

No Ford models made it inside the Top 25 and sixteen of the Top 25 come from the one of the SUV categories.

The Large segment lost market share to 1.32% of the market in January and it (naturally) dropped 49.32% (1,089 units) in volume compared to 2017.





The top selling passenger vehicle sales are shown below:



.. and the same chart with the 4x4 Utes included.:



The chart below looks at the large segment slide in comparison to the Light (Fiesta), Small (Focus) and Medium (Mondeo) segments during the last ten years – from a dominant position to almost at the bottom.



Ute 4x2
The Falcon Ute is gone now and won’t be included in future charts except where historically appropriate. Ranger sales were steady with 368 sold during the month, 33 less than the same time last year.

The Ford Ranger (down 8.2%) remained in 2^nd place this month behind the Toyota Hilux (988) and in front of the Mazda BT-50 (355), Isuzu Ute D-Max (305) and Mitsubishi Triton (220).

For 2018 YTD the segment is up 5.96% (155 units) and it held a much larger 5.96% of the market compared to December.



4x4 Utes
The 4x4 Utes are the more dominant of the utes although they held a considerably smaller 14.4% of the total market during the month, despite which their segment sales are up 26.57% (2,560) for the year thus far. Most of the major contenders made gains compared to the same period last year – Navara (+65%), Triton (+34.8%), Hilux (+46%) and Ranger (+30.2%) with only the Colorado (-5.0%) taking a hit.

The Ranger (2,892) regained the segment lead by a narrow (12 unit) margin from the Toyota Hilux (2,880) with the Nissan Navara (1,323) up three in 3^rd place ahead of the Mitsubishi Triton (1,313) steady in 4^th and the Holden Colorado (1,267) down two in 5^th place




Prestige Segment
The Caprice, also in stock run-out mode managed 6 sales and the luxury segment is down 2.67% overall. Chrysler’s 300/C managed 27 sold in January to be up 28.6% on this time last year.
With no Ford entrant in the category we no longer graph this category.

Fiesta / Light Segment
The Hyundai Accent (1,097) retained the segment but with a considerably smaller gap to the Mazda 2 (1,050) up a place in 2^nd with the in Toyota Yaris (758) down one to 3^rd place.
The rest of the top group consists of:

Suzuki Swift (685) up one to 4^th
Kia Rio (530) up two in 5^th
VW Polo (613) steady in 6^th
Honda Jazz (527) down three to 7^th and
Ford Fiesta (81) dropped a place to 12^th.

This segment held a higher 7.65% of the total market in January and is down compared to 2017 by 4.89% (-333). It’s also mostly downward results for about half the contenders in the segment with the Toyota Yaris down 23.2%, Mazda 2 down 6.5%, Fiesta down 57.6% and VW Polo down 25.0%. Barina +84.8%, Suzuki Swift +70.4% and Kia Rio +25.3% are the biggest winners.

Please note we have shortened the time scale on some of the segment graphs as they were getting too difficult to read over the longer term.





Focus / Small Segment
The month saw Focus remain in 10^th place with a reasonable 512 sold. The segment lead was regained by the Mazda 3 (3,201) ahead of the Toyota Corolla (2,776) with the Hyundai i30 (1,850) in 3^rd; all up one place. The December winner (Astra), nowhere to be seen. The remainder of the Top ten are:

VW Golf (1,523) steady in 4^th
Kia Cerato (1,432) up two places to 5^th
Honda Civic (1,293) down one place to 6^th
Subaru Impreza (920) up a place in 7^th
Holden Astra (813) down seven places in 8^th
Mitsubishi Lancer (705) in 9^th
Ford Focus in 10^th

For the year to date, Corolla is down 5.7%, the Mazda 3 is down7.8%, the Focus down by 30.1%,the Mitsubishi Lancer down 34.9% and VW Golf down by 20.1%. On the winning side, Honda Civic is up 47.9%; Kia Cerato up 4.4% and Holden Astra up 189.3%.

The segment held a slightly larger market share of 20.23% in January and it is down 3.91% (697 units) compared to 2017.





Mondeo / Medium Segment
In January, 133 Ford Mondeos were sold and it lost three spots to be in 5^th place. The segment lead was held by the Toyota Camry which sold 754 with the Mazda 6 (254) still in 2^nd and the Skoda Ocatvia (141) up one place in 3^rd. The Subaru Liberty (140) up a place in 4^thand the Mondeo in 5^th. If they were counted on size and not price the Mercedes C Class (492) and CLA-Class (250) would have been in the top five.

Percentage wise, the Mazda 6 (+1.6%) and Hyundai Sonata (+50.9%) are the only winners compared to 2017 with the Mondeo (-47.0%) and Honda Accord (-50.0%) the biggest losers.

The segment held a much lower 2.19% of the market in January and has lost volume by 7.06% compared with 2017 – a drop of 141 sales.





Ecosport / Light SUV Segment
During January, the Ford Ecosport sold a paltry 32 units and it dropped one place into 14^th place with the rest of the order being:

Mazda CX-3 (1,582) up a place to take the segment lead;
Subaru XV (1,1108) up a place in 2^nd;
Hyundai Kona (1,093) up two places in 3^rd;
Honda HR-V (1,002) steady in 4^th;
Nissan Quashqai (986) up a places in 5^th;
Mitsubishi ASX (872) down five places to 6^th; and
Toyota CH-R (649) down a place in 7^th.

Please note that we have realigned our stats with the VFACTs categories now that there is a Ford entrant in this segment.

Mostly losers in this segment, the Nissan Juke is down 55.3%, Mitsubishi ASX down 24.4%, Holden Trax down 25.2% and the Ecosport down by 84.5%. On the other side, Subaru XV is up 77.8%, Mazda CX-3 up 6.5% and the Nissan Qashqai up 10.9%.

The segment held a bigger 10.57% of the market in January and it is up 24.48% (1,795) compared to 2017.





Kuga / Compact SUV Segment
During December, the Escape (Kuga) sold 513 units and gained a spot to 10^th place with the top positions held by:

Mazda CX-5 (2,152) retained the segment lead;
Toyota RAV-4 (1,780) steady in 2^nd;
Nissan X-Trail (1,668) steady in 3^rd;
Honda CR-V (1,474) up two places in 4^th;
Hyundai Tucson (1,420) steady in 5^th;
Kia Sportage (1,1176) up two places in 6^th; and
Mitsubishi Outlander (951) up a place in 7^th

Most contenders are now up in volume for the YTD with only the Nissan X-Trail down 5.2% and Subaru Forester down 12.3%. Honda CR-V is up 167%, Escape up 152.7%, Mitsubishi Outlander up 28.3%,Toyota RAV4 up 27.07% and Kia Sportage up 12.9%.

The segment held a considerably higher 16.24% of the market in January and it is up 19.76% (2,270 units) compared to 2017.





Territory / Medium SUV Segment
Territory is almost done with only 3 sales in January. The segment lead was regained by the Toyota Prado (1,169) ahead of the Toyota Kluger (897) up a place in 2^nd and the Subaru Outback (845) up one places to 3^rd. The Mazda CX-9 (770) up two places in 4^th with the Holden Captiva (694) up two places to round out the Top 5. The Ford Everest is starting to have some impact on the sales chart with 474 sold, good enough for 8^th place.

Jeep (+26.6%), Kluger (+48.0%) and Everest (+52.4%) are all better worse than last year with only the Captiva (-44.5%) showing any substantial drop. Despite the mixed individual performances, the segment still held a steady 9.86% of the market in January but has dropped volume by 8.86% for the year to date – a decrease of 812 sales.

The second chart depicts sales for the Territory and Everest over the entire production life.





Market Share Analysis
The Falcon v Commodore and Ute market charts have now been dropped with no sales on the Falcon platform.

The newer chart to show the combined Holden and Ford sales for 4x2 Utes using the same percentage share as the previous two continues. This looks at the period from January 2012 when they both had two entries in the market place and as the Ranger continues, this chart will remain post January.



For an easy look at the share held by each market segment, we have included a set of graphs that display this for quick reference – the first looks at the percentage market share for the current month while the second compares the actual raw numbers for the current month in 2007- 2015 where it is easy to see quickly which segments have gained and which have lost. We have also added a look at the segment movements in raw numbers terms for the month YTD. This shows the actual unit numbers that have been gained or lost within each segment for the year to date.







Total Market
Toyota retained the passenger market leadership in January with 15,113 passenger segment sales giving them a comfortable lead over Mazda (10,113); Hyundai (7,124 and +1); Holden (5,719 and -1); Ford (5,571); Mitsubishi (5,263); Nissan (4,707) and Kia (4,531) in 10^th.

In percentage terms VW is down 0.4% on 2017 while Nissan is down by 6.1% and Holden are down 20.4%.Mitsubishi is up 3.7%, Mazda is up 0.5% and Toyota up by 22.0%.



We have been taking a look at the 15+-year history of the four manufacturers (Ford, Holden, Mazda and Toyota) from 2000 to the current time. These figures are based on year to date sales and as well as making the recent gain in the overall market apparent they also clearly depict how Toyota has pulled away from everyone since 2003; Mazda’s gain (and overtaking) of Ford in the 3^rd to 5^th place battle and the increasing penetration of both Nissan and Hyundai.



The next set of charts look at the trends within each segment and draws some comparisons between various battles within them. Please note that these graphs are based on the percentage share of the total market and as the market has been growing each year for the last decade or so (with the exception of 2009) the actual gains or losses are significantly greater than the gradual changes shown in the graph.

First up is a look at the four passenger segments where we can clearly see the continued slide in the large car segment, the strength of the dominant small segment and the rise in the light segment.



Second is the percentage share held by each segment during the last five years – worth noting is the impact of the SUV realignment and the continued, if somewhat inconsistent, strength of the small segment.



Third is a closer look at the sport, prestige and luxury segments over the same time frame. While some of the vehicles that get placed in these categories defy logic they are the segments that are a good indicator of the general economic performance in Australia and they had all trended slightly downward but appear to have rallied so far this year.



Fourth is a look at the SUV segments. These segments had been growing quite rapidly and most of that growth had been in the compact and medium sized vehicles but after the realignment this year the medium segment now has the upper hand over the compact segment most of the time although it is inconsistent. We have included the new segment for completeness.



To see who the winners and the losers are so far this year here is a comparison of the various manufacturers on a YTD basis when compared to last year. For the purpose of the exercise we have obviously picked the (modern) big four; Toyota, Holden, Mazda and Ford but also added a couple of others that have been big movers in recent times by way of comparison. The first chart looks at the raw numbers while the second looks at the percentage variation.





Next up is a look at some individual models – naturally all of the current Ford range with any real volume has been included but also the segment leaders and the red corner competition along with anything else that seemed of interest.



.. and a (newer) comparison of all the non-Falcon based Ford models. Please note that the Mustang is now included.



Finally, a little look at the origin of our vehicles - not really a concern now that we know the future of our automotive industry but it does at least show where some of the production off shore originates.

The pie chart shows the major origins for vehicles sold in the Australian market on a YTD basis (along with a comparison from 2009) while the second chart compares those figures to the previous years and the final chart shows a YTD total (by year) for all imports compared to locally produced. Far from a pretty picture when in the space of the seven years covered, locally manufactured sales have dropped by 84.1% and they have dropped by 59.5% this year.







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