Commodore thrashes Falcon in October sales
[SIZE="5"]Commodore thrashes Falcon in October sales, Falcon also beaten by CAMRY.[/SIZE]
[size=1][I]The Holden Commodore has recorded its best sales month of 2006, and it has been achieved at the expense of Ford’s Falcon, reports JEZ SPINKS for [URL="www.drive.com.au"]Drive[/URL].[/size]
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[QUOTE=Drive]
Holden’s Commodore is continuing its fight to revive Australia’s large-car market with the all-new VE, but [B]Ford’s rival Falcon has slipped farther down the popularity rankings.[/B]
[B]The Commodore’s sales total of 5455[/B], released today in official industry figures for October, is a second consecutive record month for Holden’s large car, improving slightly on September’s result - the first full month on sale for the new VE model.
More significantly, [B]the Commodore’s result was not far off doubling that of the Ford Falcon, which recorded 2945 sales.[/B] This is the biggest sales gap this year between the two rivals, [B]giving Commodore a huge 53.1 per cent share of the large-car market – [U]its best result since October 2002.[/U][/B]
[B]Falcon’s 27.7 market share for October still kept the Ford in second place, but the car lost another place in the best-sellers table after it was outsold not only by the Toyota Corolla (3722 sales) but also, for the first time in 2006, the four-cylinder Toyota Camry (3046).[/B]
The Corolla has squeezed the Falcon out of its traditional sales runners-up spot for most of the year, but Ford will be surprised to have seen its large car slip to fourth place in October’s results.
[B]
Ford Australia says Falcon’s October transition from BF to updated BFII model didn’t help matters but that the result was still unacceptable.[/B]
[B]“Essentially, with Falcon, we should have done better,”[/B] says Ford Australia spokesperson Sinead McAlary. “The large-car market was still there and the other guys got their fair share. It’s something we’re aware of, and we’re looking at it.
[B]“We had a decent month for Focus, Territory, and Falcon ute versus Commodore ute, but we just didn’t get the job done with Falcon.[/B]
“Our share of the large-car market in October isn’t acceptable for us,” continues McAlary, [B]“and we’ll be doing what we need to do to ensure it doesn’t happen again.[/B] We’ll have to be more aggressive now for the rest of the year and going into next year.”
Today’s October sales results coincided with [B]Ford Australia’s announcement to its employees that a voluntary redundancy package was available for up to 600 staff.[/B]
McAlary says the redundancy offer is linked to the company’s recent decision to reduce local production from mid-November.
Holden, meanwhile, said it was too early to predict whether Commodore’s result signalled a long-term return to form for the large-car segment, which is down 19.8 per cent year on year.
“[Our] results are again solid, and market share is certainly higher,” says company spokesperson Jason Laird. [B]“And [Commodore] is up 11.2 per cent year on year.[/B]
“We built the best possible car [VE Commodore] we could, to see what the market reaction is to it, but we’re not going to make bold forecasts at this point. But it’s a pleasing result given the market conditions.
“Trends build over time, but things are pointing in the right direction.”
[B]Toyota’s new rival for the Commodore and Falcon, the Aurion, only went on sale in October, so its 343 sales for the month don’t offer a significant indicator of how the Camry-based V6-powered car will fare in the large-car segment.[/B]
It certainly didn't stop Toyota from retaining its formidable lead at the top of the manufacturers' table, with three top five cars - Corolla (2nd), Camry (3rd) and Yaris (5th) - contributing to the company's best October sales result for 16 years.
Toyota, which has sold 175,952 vehicles so far in 2006 for a 21.9 per cent market share, says it is on course for an all-time record sales year in Australia.
[B]"The new Camry continues to exceed expectations after its first full two months of sale,"[/B] says David Buttner, Toyota Australia's senior executive director of sales and marketing. "Corolla continues to set the pace for small cars, [plus there were] continued strong sales of Yaris."
"We are confident Toyota will exceed last year's total of 202,817 sales by a healthy margin," says Buttner.
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[size=3]Top 10 best-selling vehicles in Australia, October 2006:[/size]
[COLOR="Red"]
[B]1. Holden Commodore 5455[/B][/COLOR]
2. Toyota Corolla 3722
3. Toyota Camry (4cyl) 3046
[color=blue][B]4. Ford Falcon 2945[/B][/color]
5. Toyota Yaris 2858
6. Mazda3 2585
7. Hyundai Getz 1594
8. Ford Focus 1584
9. Holden Astra 1575
10. Ford Territory 1349
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It's good to see the VE doing well in the marketplace. But Camry beating Falcon... Major disturbance in the force :D
I always like seeing the Focus toppling the Astra.
The 380 isn't even up there :eek: :eek:
It's going to be interesting to see where Aurion slots in.