Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Toyota Camry Now Best Selling Locally Produced Model In Australia
Lately we have travelled to Iran, Japan, Puerto Rico and Poland, today I’m taking you to Australia. A once-in-a-(almost)-lifetime event has just happened there.
Kangaroos and koalas not your thing? That’s fine. You can discover the best-selling models in 170 additional countries and territories in my blog. Or today I can offer you the 264 best-selling models in the USA in October 2012. Every single one of them.
Now back to Australia.
You’d think a Holden or a Ford would be the best-selling local model in Australia…
Not so this month and for the first time in 17 years!
You can check out the Top 15 best-sellers in Australia in October 2012 here
First a bit of background on the Australian new car market.
Well it’s simple, a bit like the North American one, the Aussie car market is on fire again in 2012: up 12 percent year-on-year in October to 95,584 registrations, which brings the year-to-date total to 918,258 units, up 10 percent on 2011. Aussie new car sales are now almost certain to beat the all-time Full Year record of 1,049,982 sales set in 2007.
Toyota has a stellar month, placing 3 models in the Australian monthly Top 4 for potentially the first time ever and monopolising the Top 2 for the first time since October 2011. Passed by the Mazda3 last month, the Toyota Hilux is back in pole position in October and for the 6th time in the last 7 months with 3,403 sales and 3.6 percent. However in the year-to-date race for the pole position, the Mazda3 is still on top at 35,776 sales vs. 34,467 for the Hilux.
Now to the (almost) once-in-a-lifetime event.
In October the Toyota Camry ranks #2 in Australia with 3,379 sales and 3.5 percent market share. Yep. Not that impressive on paper, but it actually makes the Camry the best-selling locally produced model in the country, passing the Holden Commodore (#6 at 2,449 units) and the Holden Cruze (#8 with 2,251 sales). This is only the second time in history after January 1995 that the Camry holds this position, and potentially the second time since Holden started manufacturing cars locally in 1948 that it’s not a Ford or a Holden that holds that spot.
Camry sales have benefitted from the “Local Pride” campaign where Toyota encouraged people to buy Australian-built cars by offering 0% finance. For the record, this is also the Camry’s best Australian ranking overall and monthly volume since December 2005 when it ranked #2 with 3,822 units and 5% share, and its highest market share since December 2010 (3.7%).
These news come only a few days after the announcement of the demise of local parts manufacturer Autodom, which could mean Ford and Holden’s operations halt this week. Interestingly, Toyota’s local operations are not affected… This means that whereas it took 17 years for the Camry to get back to the locally built pole position, it could now stay there for the long term.
You can check out the Top 15 best-sellers in Australia in October 2012 here
More by Matt Gasnier
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It's hard to believe that cars like the Monaro and Falcon have been viable since Opel and Ford surrendered the large car market in Europe, killing off their platform mates. Without Omegas and Scorpios, it seems like a lot of effort for cars that sell in a small market with a plethora of alternatives.
I'm surprised the Holden Cruze isn't doing better, I keep reading comments about how good Mazda (I believe 3) is doing down under, Cruze is a similar car in the same class.