Strong start to 2017 new car sales

SUV boom continues as the sales race begins again.

03 February 2017 Stephen Ottley

The Mazda3 was the top-selling car in January. Photo: Supplied

Australia is on track for another strong year of car sales.

The figures are in for January and the first month of 2017 was up slightly on the 2016 result, indicating a seventh consecutive year of one million plus new car sales is on the cards. Australians bought 84,910 new cars in January, a 0.6 per cent increase on the same month last year.

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries CEO Tony Weber said the result is a positive start to the year that bodes well for another year of growth.

"Coming off the back of another record sales year, we're pleased to see a modest gain, with private buyers active in the market and taking advantage of the offers out there from the brands," Weber said.

"It's a very good indicator for the year to come. We are confident that given unchanged economic conditions, the market will remain buoyant."

The best-selling vehicle in January was the Mazda3, which took a convincing win over its arch-rival the Toyota Corolla; selling 530 more examples.

Not surprisingly it was SUVs and utes that continued to perform strongly with the best-selling vehicle in 2016, the Toyota HiLux ute, taking third place overall just ahead of the Ford Ranger.

SUV sales continued to grow, accounting for 40.2 per cent of the total market compared to 41.1 per cent for passenger cars. Four SUVs made the top 10 in sales, the Mazda CX-5 and CX-3 as well as the Hyundai Tucson and Nissan X-Trail.

Toyota was the top-selling brand overall ahead of Mazda. It was a good start to the year for Holden, bouncing back from a difficult 2016 to finish January as the third best-selling brand.

Top selling brands in January

1. Toyota - 12,554

2. Mazda - 10,067

3. Holden - 7184

4. Hyundai - 6705

5. Ford - 5912

6. Mitsubishi - 5075

7. Nissan - 5012

8. Kia - 4015

9. Subaru - 4009

10. Volkswagen - 3995

Top selling models in January

1. Mazda3 - 3473

2. Toyota Corolla - 2943

3. Toyota HiLux - 2702

4. Ford Ranger - 2622

5. Hyundai i30 - 2018

6. Holden Commodore - 1960

7. Mazda CX-5 - 1924

8. Nissan X-Trail - 1759

9. Hyundai Tucson - 1678

10. Mazda CX-3 - 1486

Source: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

Drive Comments

2 Comments

The truth | 2017-02-03 03:30:53

All the editorial space VW and VAG in general get here and in reality they have a best-brand position of number 10 in total sales, including cars and commercial vehicles, and no vehicle in the top 10. Kia and Subaru are at number 9 and 8 with no commercial vehicle representation at all. Audi??? Skoda??? Why do we get so much German sourced editorial information when they are basically No-shows in the sales IN AUSTRALIA? Which market are the editirs pitching for, the Australian market or German market? Fahren.com.au, or Drive.com.au?