2007 Cars Report. March 08

After coming tantalisingly close in recent years, 2007 was the year that saw our domestic market finally breach 1 million new vehicle sales. The final figure reached, being 1,049,982 vehicle sales, an increase of 87,316 or 9.1 percent over 2006. This is the first time that 1 million sales have been achieved in a year.
All segments contributed to the growth, with the passenger market at 637,019 up 38,625 vehicles. The small car segment rose by 5.9 percent (13,030 vehicles), light cars were up 10.2 percent (11,805 vehicles), the medium car segment up 5.6 percent (4,872 vehicles), while the large car segment rose by just 2.3 percent (3,154 vehicles).
The SUV market grew to 198,176 vehicles- up a massive 16 percent - while the compact SUVs rose 19.4 percent, the medium SUV segment up 21.3 percent and the luxury segment by 9.3 percent. One segment that grew out of all proportion, was the pick-up/cab chassis 4x4 light commercial segment, which was up 22.3 percent.
Toyota continues to dominate the market with 5 vehicles in the top 10 models. The strength of the Japanese brand is such that it could have stopped selling for the last few months and still romped in at number one!
While there is much to celebrate, delve into the figures and there is plenty of anomalies that will have local manufacturers worried.
For local manufacturers things do not look so bright. While the Holden Commodore was again Australia's most popular car, considering that it was riding on the back of a superior VE model, sales rose a mere 776 units over 2006 year figures. The popular Barina also dived 7.6 percent for the year and the Viva was down 4,087 units. The Astra just held its own and it was the Captiva with the addition of 9,000 new sales and the strength of the Holden light commercial range that contributed to GM Holden's bottom line. Holden only sold 169 more vehicles than 2006 and secured a market share of 14 percent.
Over in Ford country sales were down 6 percent, with the flagship Falcon taking a heavy hit - down some 9,449 units from 2006. Buyers are obviously hanging out for the new Orion, which already has enormous expectations on it.
While the small car market was buoyant the Ford Fiesta and Focus sales fell marginally from that of 2006. The previously unstoppable Territory has now fallen below 2006 figures and Ford is paying dearly for the lack of a turbo-diesel model. Territory is still doing well, but will need to be refreshed to remain at the forefront, in the face of newcomers in this burgeoning segment. Overall, Ford was down nearly 7,000 vehicles and to some extent, like Holden can thank the success of its light commercial range, and in particular the Ford Ranger, which has contributed strongly for not falling further.
Mitsubishi sales were up 11,22 vehicles over 2006 figures and owes much of this to the strength of the Lancer and its AWD and 4x4 range, which remains strong in the marketplace. The 380 sales were down a disappointing 1,481 vehicles from the previous year, and seem set to slide into oblivion.
Luxury car sales were particularly encouraging in 2007 with Bentley, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lexus, Maserati, Lamborghini, Lotus and Porsche sales all up significantly over the previous year.
Roughly two thirds of new cars sold in Australia were imported , with brands such as Mazda, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan and Suzuki improving their market share. Most European brands (with exception of Jaguar) also gained market share.
Not surprisingly, diesel is no longer a dirty word, with a number of manufacturers greatly upping the choice of diesel engines across many of their models. Private passenger vehicle diesel sales were up 63 percent in 2007, while LPG sales were down a massive 44.5 percent. Vehicles purchased by business also saw an 88.3 percent rise in diesel vehicles sales and also experienced a substantial fall in LPG sales.
In the SUV private market, diesel models grew by 41 percent and 24 percent for non private. Hybrid sales are up in all segments.
New car sales by State are pretty much as expected with NSW the dominant state with 320,055 new car sales in 2007, followed by Victoria (265,961), Queensland (234,551), Western Australia (121,275), South Australia (62,052, Tasmania (19,501), ACT (16,667) and Northern Territory (9,920). The biggest increase in new purchases was in the Australian Capital Territory which was up 14.8 percent, followed by Queensland 10.4 percent and Victoria 9.5 percent.
Cars purchased in Australia are sourced from 27 countries, with 849,497 vehicles imported in 2007, and just 200,485 manufactured locally.
Major sources for our new purchases are Japan (369,875 cars), Thailand (154,979), Korea (106,652), Germany (41,424), South Africa (34,391), Belgium (20,357), Spain (18,636), France (14,761) and the USA (13,576). Unexpected origins for some of our imports included Argentina (34), Canada (4), Poland (1,942), Taiwan (4,509) and Mexico (5,492).
Local manufacture is down 14 percent at Ford, 16.2 percent at Mitsubishi and 3.6 percent at Holden. A major component of all Commodore and Falcon sales are to fleets and these sales underpin their local production.
Both Holden and Toyota are increasingly bolstering sales with strong export sales and manufacturing components for global distribution.
From 2011 Ford will commence local manufacture of the Focus, alongside existing production of Territory and Falcon. 40,000 Focuses are slated for export and this is likely to assist Ford in maintaining its local manufacturing facilities as it too becomes a global player.
Brian Tanner