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New vehicle sales report – February 2012

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Last month Australians signed off on 85,723 new vehicle sales, that’s almost 5000 more than February last year. A bit over half of all vehicles sold were classified as passenger cars. Fair enough. But around one quarter, that’s one in every four sales, is now an SUV. Shame on you people!

FCAI Chief Executive, Ian Chalmers is just happy that punters are splashing their cash. “The SUV market has clearly made a strong connection with auto customers by meeting their diverse needs,” he said. “This is demonstrated by overall SUV sales being up 23.8 per cent (4,505) since last month and 26.6 per cent (9,578) compared with February last year.”

Toyota was miles ahead of its nearest competitor, Holden, on the overall sales charts. While Mazda is having a turn as the third best seller nation wide, a position that generally rotates between them, Ford and Hyundai.

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New vehicle sales report – January 2012

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Australian automotive sales have started strongly in 2012 with a total of 76,783 sold. That’s an increase of 3199 sales compared to the same month last year.

Sadly, we think, the growth is due in part to the seemingly insatiable appetite the Australian market has for SUVs. In this segment sales were up almost 30% on 2011 figures.

“This is an encouraging January sales result and provides a good start to 2012,” FCAI Chief Executive Ian Chalmers said.

“It is mostly being driven by private and business buyers of SUVs and car rental companies updating their passenger car fleets. The number of private buyers for passenger cars declined by 8.4 per cent compared with this time last year.”

Toyota, Holden and Mazda have started the year as the top three selling marques.

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New vehicle sales report – December 2011

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Australia registered over one million new vehicle sales in 2011 the latest FCAI press release reveals. The final tally of 1,008,437 represents the fourth time the country has passed one million sales in a calendar year.

Despite dropping more than 27,000 sales (-2.6%) on 2010 numbers, FCAI chief executive Ian Chalmers reminds us this is still something the motor industry should be proud of.

“2011 full year sales are an exceptional result given the effects of natural disasters both at home and abroad throughout the year,” Mr Chalmers said.

“The uptake of new vehicles was impacted early in the year by economic uncertainty, closely followed by natural disasters in the key markets of Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland.

“Sales were further subdued by Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, with a resulting shortage of export vehicles from that country a secondary outcome of the extreme loss of life experienced by the Japanese people.”

The top three highest selling brands in 2011 were Toyota (181624 sales), Holden (126,095) and Ford (91,243).

Illustrating the continuing demand for smaller cars in the local market the Mazda3 was the highest selling model in Australia last year with 41,429 sales. Traditional volume seller Holden Commodore (40 617) was close behind and the Toyota Hilux (36,124) maintained its recent grip at the top of the sales charts.

More detail and 2012 forecasts from FCAI after the break.

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New vehicle sales report – November 2011

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Hold on tight everyone Australia should crack 1,000,000 car sales in 2011 after VFACTS figures show 88,654 new vehicles were sold in November. That brings the year to date total to 925,978, which should allow the 1 million mark to be broken for only the fourth time in Australia’s history.

“For the past four months in a row sales have been trending above the same period for 2010. This suggests improving consumer confidence in Australia’s economic prospects,” FCAI chief executive Ian Chalmers said.

Although, it is worth noting the final tally for 2011 will fall short of last year’s total of 1,035,574 sales.

As usual Toyota topped the charts for the month (17,436 sales), followed by Holden (9,761) and Ford (8,103).

For the fourth month in 2011 the Toyota Corolla was Australia’s highest-selling car (3,731). Close behind was the rather more bearable Mazda3 (3,480) and the tradies’ favourite Toyota HiLux (3,332).

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2011 Tokyo Motor Show photo gallery

2011 Tokyo Motor Show

Like us you couldn’t make it to the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show either? Fear not as we’ve assembled a variety of images from the show featuring the usual suspects, such as the Toyota 86 and it’s close relative the Subaru BRZ. There’s also the weird and wonderful, too, in the form of the Daihatsu FC Case, the Nissan TOWNPOD, the Suzuki Q-Concept (pictured) and more.

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Mazda Motor Shows

Tokyo 2011: Mazda Takeri concept

Mazda Takeri concept

Mazda promised us back in October they’d be bringing this smooth looking Takeri concept to the Tokyo Motor Show. At the time they were a bit hush-hush on the finer details. Now that the Tokyo show is here they’ve given us a few more pics and a new video, but still not much else.

One thing they have gone into is the regenerative braking system, rather obtusely labelled ‘i-ELOOP’—that’s intelligent energy loop for those playing at home. This technology will feature on road cars next year, Mazda say.

Real world use is expected to yield a 10% reduction in fuel consumption. Here’s the neat bit for all the gadget freaks out there, instead of using a battery to store the recaptured energy Mazda has employed a capacitor to do the work. It can be fully charged in less than a minute and is better suited to the demands of rapid charging/discharging.

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Mazda

Your guide to the 2011 Mazda3 facelift

Mazda3 facelift

The facelifted Mazda3 range hit Australian shores last month, but with its recent European launch comes a raft of new information.

Suspension and cosmetic enhancements feature across all Mazda3 models. The facelift also brings the addition of the Mazda3 SP20 SKYACTIV.

There’s heaps more after the break, including photos, video interviews with key Mazda executives and two detailed press kits for download.

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Mazda

Mazda Takeri revealed before Tokyo debut

Mazda Takeri concept

At the Australian International Motor Show earlier this year we were impressed by the gorgeous Mazda Shinari concept. It would seem the Shinari has spawned the equally stunning Takeri concept you see here. The Takeri will be presented to the public for the first time at the Tokyo Motor Show in early December.

Where the larger Shinari was a design concept only, the mid-size Takeri offers a few more details. Although, it looks as though Mazda is keeping the real detail for Tokyo.

For now we know the Takeri will be powered by a SKYACTIV-D turbocharged diesel engine. Capacity, power and fuel consumption are yet to be published, although if you’re feeling a bit nerdy you can learn more on the Mazda website. Helping to reduce consumption will be an i-stop idling system and some of the car’s ancillaries will run on power gained via regenerative braking.

Of course, the ‘Kodo’ design language shown in these concepts is expected to filter its way to future production models. And we reckon that’s a pretty good thing. Could the next Mazda6 really look as good as this?

You can see more of the Takeri after the break. Is it just us, or is there a bit of Audi in the interior?

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New vehicle sales report – August 2011

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Things are looking up as far as new vehicle sales in Australia are concerned. At total of 88,082 sales were recorded in August. That’s up 7091 compared to the previous month and 5960 more than August 2010.

Steve Payne, FCAI acting Chief Executive, explains the market is trending upwards after a slow start to 2011, “We’re continuing to see a recovery in supply from earthquake and tsunami-damaged Japan, along with stronger sales in Queensland as the state recovers from severe weather events earlier in the year.”

The real news is that the Mazda3 knocked the Holden Commodore of its perch as the country’s highest selling car. While Toyota comfortably held its position as the highest selling marque, ahead of Holden and Mazda.

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Mazda Motorsports

VIDEO: Mazda MX-5 GT onboard at Spa

Mazda MX-5 GT

Formula One’s mid-season slumber will end in just over one week when the circus comes to the small Belgian village of Spa-Francorchamps. Home, of course, to one of the world’s most loved racetracks. Helping us to get back into the swing of things is this footage from Mazda UK filmed onboard an MX5-GT. Mark Ticehurst was at the wheel and he talks us through the lap as well.

Take the jump to watch the lap in full.

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New vehicle sales report – July 2011

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A total of 80,991 new vehicles were sold last month according to official VFACTS numbers. That represents a small drop of 1.7% compared to July 2010.

Steve Payne, FCAI Acting Chief Executive, explains the year-long trend is lower again, “While the drop in sales in July is small compared to the same month last year, the overall drop in sales for the year to date of 5.9% indicates that consumers are continuing to delay new vehicle purchases.”

The apparently unstoppable growth in SUV sales continues, with the segment up 1.8% against July last year. While the luxury end of the SUV market is up 17.4% on year-to-date figures.

Toyota returns to top the charts for the month (12,980 sales), with Holden (10,819) in second and Ford (7769) holding off Mazda and Hyundai.

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New vehicle sales report – June 2011

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Apologies for missing last month’s update and for those keeping score Holden actually pipped Toyota to the highest selling marque for May. A result largely due to supply issues in Japan following the tsunami earlier this year. Indeed the total sales for May were 77,406 a fall of 13.2% on 2010 figures.

And so it has remained in June. Holden still holds the title of highest selling brand (12,827) just ahead of Toyota (12,514). Ford has knocked Hyundai off the ever-revolving third place position on the sales charts (9,216).

In all 96,157 vew vehicles were delivered in June, a healthy increase on May’s figures, but still down 11.6% on 2010 numbers; which was a record for single month sales.

FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said, “Manufacturers and distributors affected by the Japanese natural disaster are reporting a reliable return of supply. We would expect the effect to dissipate over coming months.”

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