What’s hot, what’s not in Australia’s October car sales

Ford dominated at October’s Bathurst 1000, scoring victory from pole with the Mustang. For years, the car industry banked on a ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ mantra.

New car sales declined for the 19th straight month in October 2019.

Victory at Bathurst didn’t translate to an uptick in sales for the Ford Mustang GT, while hybrid tech helped the Toyota RAV4 overtake the evergreen Corolla hatch. Here’s a look at what’s hot and what’s not in the new car game.

Hot:

The Toyota RAV4 is kicking goals.

Toyota RAV4

Around the country, the new RAV4 is a cracker, ticking plenty of boxes for couples and families. Long waiting lists and tricky supply of sought-after hybrid variants couldn’t stop the RAV4 from becoming last month’s top-selling SUV and helping lift hybrid sales to new peaks across the board. It even leapfrogged the stablemate Corolla hatch to occupy fourth place, behind the reigning Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger ute duo, and Hyundai’s i30.

Kia

The market as a whole is down 8 per cent, or about 78,000 cars for the year to date. Among the best-selling brands, nine of the top 10 registered sales declines when comparing last month with the previous October. The outlier was Kia, which is having a strong year helped by the introduction of a new Cerato GT hatch. Stripping out SUV sales and focusing on passenger models, Kia outperformed rival brands such as Mazda and Hyundai and was second only to Toyota.

The Lamborghini Urus has proved successful in Australia and beyond.

Lamborghini Urus

A high-riding, four-door, all-wheel drive Lamborghini crossover would have been laughed out of town 10 years ago. But the new Lamborghini Urus is proving popular with wealthy customers, outselling the brand’s sports cars fourfold in October. The Urus is ahead of combined sales for Huracan and Aventador for the year to date, so it’s not hard to see why Ferrari, Aston Martin and others are about to board the SUV train.

What’s Not:

The new Mazda3 isn’t as popular as previous models.

Mazda3

The new Mazda3 hasn’t quite resonated with cautious Australian buyers. Is it the car’s dearer entry price, compromised rear space or the trend toward SUVs? We’re not sure but the Mazda3 has slipped out of the top 10, lagging well behind the Hyundai i30, Toyota Corolla and Kia Cerato.

Ford’s Mustang GT

Ford Mustang

Win on Sunday, sell on Monday — the old adage used to be true but success on the Supercars circuit hasn’t translated to sales growth for the Ford Mustang. The Blue Oval brand dominated last month’s Bathurst 1000, winning from pole position. But the Mustang recorded its worst sales tally since it first arrived in December 2015, contributing to a 31 per cent drop for the year to date.

Red tape

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries boss Tony Weber blames red tape on new car finance for at least part of the market’s slowdown. “While the drought and other domestic conditions are impacting the market, our key concern is the effect over-regulation of the financial sector is having on new vehicle sales,” he says. “The FCAI and our members have been concerned about the risk-averse approach to lending in Australia for some time and see improved access to finance as a key to driving economic growth in 2020.”