Commodore thrashes Falcon in October sales

[adrenaline]

Commodore thrashes Falcon in October sales, Falcon also beaten by CAMRY.

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 Drive.

Holden’s Commodore is continuing its fight to revive Australia’s large-car market with the all-new VE, but Ford’s rival Falcon has slipped farther down the popularity rankings.

The Commodore’s sales total of 5455, 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, the Commodore’s result was not far off doubling that of the Ford Falcon, which recorded 2945 sales. This is the biggest sales gap this year between the two rivals, giving Commodore a huge 53.1 per cent share of the large-car market – its best result since October 2002.

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).

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.

Ford Australia says Falcon’s October transition from BF to updated BFII model didn’t help matters but that the result was still unacceptable.

“Essentially, with Falcon, we should have done better,” 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.

“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.

“Our share of the large-car market in October isn’t acceptable for us,” continues McAlary, “and we’ll be doing what we need to do to ensure it doesn’t happen again. 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 Ford Australia’s announcement to its employees that a voluntary redundancy package was available for up to 600 staff.

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. “And [Commodore] is up 11.2 per cent year on year.

“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.”

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.

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.

"The new Camry continues to exceed expectations after its first full two months of sale," 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.

_____________________________________________

Top 10 best-selling vehicles in Australia, October 2006:

1. Holden Commodore 5455
2. Toyota Corolla 3722
3. Toyota Camry (4cyl) 3046
4. Ford Falcon 2945
5. Toyota Yaris 2858
6. Mazda3 2585
7. Hyundai Getz 1594
8. Ford Focus 1584
9. Holden Astra 1575
10. Ford Territory 1349

It's good to see the VE doing well in the marketplace. But Camry beating Falcon... Major disturbance in the force

I always like seeing the Focus toppling the Astra.

The 380 isn't even up there

It's going to be interesting to see where Aurion slots in.