FPV hangs tough

John Mellor’s
GoAuto Market Insight
HiLux hunts Mazda3 as
Corolla bides its time in
quest for top-car crown
By TERRY MARTIN
THE quest to fi nd ‘Australia’s Next
Top Model’ in the motor industry is
hotting up this year, with a resurgent
Toyota HiLux utility now within 1600
units of the Mazda3 small car after
seven months of trading.
That leaves fi ve months for more
twists and turns in the marketplace,
but on current form the HiLux is well
placed to become the fi rst Toyota model
in memory and the fi rst ute to claim the
coveted title.
Toyota recorded 3044 sales for
HiLux 4x4 last month (up 49 per cent),
and together with a modest 1119 4x2
versions was more than 800 units clear
of the Mazda3 (on 3355) as the nation’s
number-one vehicle in July – its fourth
successive month as the clear top model
and its third in a row above 4000 units.
Year to date, HiLux has racked up
23,575 sales and is closing in on the
Mazda3, which to the end of July had
accumulated 25,168 new registrations
to lead the fi eld after taking the crown
from the Holden Commodore last year.
With Commodore off the pace in
2012, Corolla is in third place with
22,011 sales YTD (up 20.4 per cent)
and has a current-model run-out and
fully redesigned new series still to
come, raising the prospect of two
Toyota models on the dais come
December 31.
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This would be a signifi cant
achievement for the Japanese auto
giant, for although it has dominated as
Australia’s biggest-selling brand since
2003 and ruled the roost in a variety
of market segments, Toyota has never
capped it off with the number-one
model in the land.
Nine years ago, when Toyota won
back market leadership from the Aussie
lion brand, Holden was selling twice as
many Commodores as Toyota’s topselling
Camry (86,553 to 38,540).
Despite massive declines since then,
Commodore continued to lord over all
other models, big and small, until last
year’s 11.6 per cent fall to a new lowwater
mark of 40,617 units ended its
15-year reign and reduced it to second
place behind the Mazda3 (41,429).
It was a stunning result for Mazda,
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Means Performance.
The heat is on Australia’s Top Models 2006-2012 YTD
Average monthly sales
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Holden Commodore
Toyota Corolla Toyota HiLux Mazda3
Aug 15, 2012 Page 24
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 YTD
NNote t : FFord
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alco l n th thiird diin
22006
006 with ith 353 3532 avg mthl thly
sales l
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the nation’s top full-line importer,
which had consistently shifted more
than 32,000 units of its acclaimed small
car since the mid-2000s before upping
the ante to 39,000 in 2010.
What made it remarkable was that the
Mazda3 never looked to be a fi rm topmodel
prospect before last year, having
never before outsold Corolla and only
once beating HiLux, way back in 2005.
Without the setbacks from last year’s
Thai fl ood disaster, HiLux, which
fi nished third on 36,124 (just 37 units
ahead of Corolla), would surely have
threatened for fi rst or second place
overall and would not have sunk to just
over 1000 units in January this year,
leaving it almost 3000 sales in arrears
of the Mazda3 after only the fi rst stanza.
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